When Art Imitates Death: Actors Who Died Just Like Their Fictional Characters

As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." While many actors are immortalized through their work on the stage and screen, they are no exception to this rule. What you may not know is that some actors have met the exact same fate as one of the characters they played, whether they died in an accidental shooting, passed away from the same illness, or simply had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We've all heard of art imitating life, but this is something even more rare: Art imitating death.

From up-and-coming actors who were on the cusp of taking the movie industry by storm to glamorous stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, the following actors all died in the same way their characters did.

Sadly, cancer is an extremely common death, but it's rare that an actor dies from the same type of cancer as their character just a year after playing them. An important part of 1999's "Magnolia" revolves around the cancer diagnosis and death of Jason Robards' former TV producer Earl Partridge, who is filled with regret over the poor choices he's made regarding his son, Frank (Tom Cruise), and his young wife, Linda (Julianne Moore). Partridge's cancer starts in his lungs and spreads to his brain. Ultimately, Frank comes to his estranged father's bedside just before he dies.

In real life, Robards "died of complications from a long battle with cancer," confirmed The New York Times. He managed the illness while working on "Magnolia" and admitted that he wanted to play the part for that very reason. "What drew me to it," he said (via CBS), "is the fact that the guy I'm playing is dying of cancer." He joined the ranks of actors who knew they were dying and delivered one last memorable performance with his turn as Earl Partridge, ultimately passing away of complications from lung cancer on December 26, 2000. He was 78 years old.

The tragic death of Brandon Lee during the making of "The Crow" is well-documented, but if you haven't seen the film, then you may not know that the 28-year-old up-and-coming star died the same way as Eric Draven, the character he was playing when he was fatally injured on set. Eric is killed when he's shot by men working for a crime boss named Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) and is then thrown out the window of his apartment for good measure. In the 1994 film (much of which Lee had completed before his death, allowing it to be released with some creative rewrites), Eric is resurrected and seeks revenge on the people that killed both him and the love of his life.

Lee was filming a portion of Draven's death scene where Funboy (Michael Massee) shoots the character in the chest. What neither Lee nor Massee knew was that the prop gun Massee was required to fire in the scene had been stuffed with a dummy round for a close-up shot to make the chamber seem full. The gun was not cleared of the dummy cartridges before more prop blanks were loaded into the weapon. When the weapon was fired, the dummy struck Lee with the force of a real bullet. He was rushed to hospital for surgery but doctors were unable to save him. His father, martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee, also died in controversial circumstances.

The death of Tupac Shakur shocked the world in 1996. The 25-year-old rapper and actor was shot four times at a stoplight in Las Vegas after attending a boxing match and died six days later. In 1997's "Gang Related," his final film, Shakur's Detective Jake Rodriguez is shot to death by a bookmaker and some hired muscle over the gambling money he owes. The investigation into Rodriguez' death forms the final act of the film and ends up revealing the bad cop ways of Detective Frank Divinci (Jim Belushi), who had been recorded by Rodriquez admitting to murder.

Of course, Tupac Skakur's murder went unsolved for decades until a man named Duane "Keefe D" Davis – who admitted to being in the car that the shots were fired from but denied being the killer — was indicted for killing Shakur by a Nevada grand jury in 2023. "I know a lot of people have been watching and waiting for this day," Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said (via USA Today). "Tupac Shakur is a music legend and for a long time, this community and worldwide have been wanting justice for Tupac."

Susan Hayward was an iconic, glamorous figure during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was even considered to play a female version of James Bond prior to Sean Connery became 007, such was her sway in Tinseltown. She was the queen of the weepies, and, in a tragic twist, one of her roles ended up mirroring her death. In "Stolen Hours," she plays a character diagnosed with a brain tumor who is told that she has only a short amount of time to live. Faced with her mortality, Laura Pember tries to make the most of her last year on earth and even embarks on a love affair with her doctor. 

In real life, Hayward was diagnosed with brain metastasis after an initial diagnosis of lung cancer in 1972. She died on March 14, 1975 after suffering a seizure at the age of 57. Hayward's death has been connected through time to the deaths of her "The Conqueror" co-stars John Wayne and Agnes Moorehead, as well as the film's director, Dick Powell, all of whom died of cancer. "The Conqueror" was shot in Yucca Flat, near an atomic bomb testing site, and of the 220 crewmembers who went into the desert to film, 91 of them got cancer, with 46 dying of the disease. For some, including the families of the deceased, this ratio is too high for it to be a coincidence. Many now consider "The Conqueror" to be one of the most dangerous films ever made.