Actors Who Died Before the Completion of Their Final Films

Fisher died a few days later, on December 27, 2016, a year before the film she’d been working on – Star Wars: The Last Jedi – hit theaters. Some unreleased scenes and footage from The Force Awakens were used in The Rise of Skywalker, which was released in 2019 and was touchingly dedicated to the beloved actress. Of course, Carrie Fisher was not the only actor to pass on before her latest project wrapped. Read on to discover the details about actors who never got to witness the release (not to mention the success) of their final work.

Perry rose to fame in Beverly Hills 90210 as Dylan Mckay. A hotshot heartthrob at his peak, he also starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Later in his career, Perry worked with the highly energetic director Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Sadly, he died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 52, and the film was released in the US four months after his death.

Unfortunately, Cameron Boyce died in his sleep when he was just twenty years old. He had suffered an epileptic seizure. The young man never saw his career bloom to more mature roles. Runt, Mrs. Fletcher, and the third installment of Descendants were released after his unexpected death.

This was followed by considerably successful films Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife, but Houston was becoming more erratic because of her drug abuse. She made a comeback in Sparkle but drowned in her own bathtub due to a heart problem and the effects of drug use. Sparkle hit theaters 48 months after she passed away.

Stan Lee passed away a month before his 96th birthday in November 2018. Marvel fans were treated to Lee’s posthumous cameo appearances in Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, which offered final glimpses of his playful nature.

Upon his death in 2017, his friend Burt Ward called him “the real Batman, and truly the Bright Knight.” Two years after his passing, Batman vs. Two-Face was released, and to the fans’ delight, they were able to listen to the “real” Batman’s voice – provided one last time.

Anton Yelchin had so much more to offer, but a freak accident ended his life at the age of 27. Sadly, when checking his mail one day, he was pinned against his own gate by a vehicle. This was before the release of the third Star Trek Beyond film, in which he played the role of Pavel Chekov. 

Despite undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer, the English actor continued with his work, barely completing That Good Night, which was released after his passing along with Damascus Cover, and My Name Is Lenny.

She returned for the new Star Wars trilogy in 2015 but died just a year into the project after suffering a heart attack onboard a commercial flight to LA. She’d been working on The Last Jedi at the time, which was released a year after her untimely death. 

Rickman’s final movie, Eye in the Sky, was released after his death from cancer. We also heard his voice acting as Absolem the Caterpillar in Alice Through the Looking Glass after his 2016 death.

Unfortunately, the beloved artist took his own life in 2014, leaving his family and fans in shock. Motion pictures Merry Friggin’ Christmas, Absolutely Anything, and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb were released after his death, leaving a bittersweet memory for those who loved him dearly.

His last performance was in Enough Said with Julia Louis-Dreyfus – a comedy-drama that received positive reviews and earned him multiple award nominations. Gandolfini clinched the Best Actor Awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Boston Society of Film Critics. Sadly, he passed away before the film’s release in 2013. 

People were surprised when he died of an accidental drug overdose as few people suspected that the talented actor of Doubt and Charlie Wilson’s War took drugs at all. He played the role of Plutarch Heavensbee in the Hunger Games series, and the last two installments came out in theaters posthumously.

Walker starred in five (out of seven) sequels and was in the middle of filming Furious 7 when he died in a fiery car crash. As a result, his brothers filled in as ringers for his character to ensure he was able to finish his last film.

Her performance alongside Eminem in the movie 8 Mile was a critical success, and things were definitely looking up for Murphy until she suffered a cardiac arrest in her bathroom. She had already completed her last work, Abandoned, before she died. The thriller was shown in theaters eight months after her passing.

Mac was heralded for his roles in Ocean’s Eleven and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. He succumbed to sarcoidosis at the age of 50. His presence was felt in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa as the voice of Zuba the Lion. He also appeared posthumously in Soul Men and Old Dogs.

Ledger reportedly had terrible sleeping problems because he couldn’t help internalizing his roles. This led him to take various medications that accidentally led to a combined drug overdose. The Dark Knight was released after his death and earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was released a year after his death.

Harris was cast as Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films, and young moviegoers were able to witness one of Ireland’s greatest actors at work. Sadly, Harris died of cancer in 2002, before Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released.

Aaliyah’s first film was Romeo Must Die, in which she starred with Jet Li, a combination that many critics felt didn’t mix well. This was followed by Queen of the Damned, and the singer was supposed to appear in The Matrix sequels, but she died in a plane crash before she could resume her role as Zee in The Matrix Revolutions.

Oliver Reed’s last role before he died was as Antonius Proximo in Gladiator. During a break from the shooting, Reed found himself in a drinking challenge against young sailors at a local bar in Malta. While living the hellraiser lifestyle he was known for, he suffered a heart attack. CGI technology and body doubles had to be employed to complete his scenes in the movie.

Farley played brash characters well. Where other actors would have failed, he succeeded in making his audience happy with his franticness. Farley died of a drug overdose at the age of 33. Dirty Work (in which he had a cameo appearance) and Almost Heroes were shown in cinemas months after he was found dead in his apartment.

He was also a good actor, with films Juice, Poetic Justice, and Above the Rim demonstrating his talent. He was described as the “most magnetic figure” in a review by Rolling Stone magazine. After being hit in a drive-by shooting, Shakur died at the age of 25. A year later, his last movie, Gang Related, was released.

Wood mysteriously died by drowning while on a boating trip with her husband. This was during the filming of Brainstorm, which went on to have a limited theatrical release two years after Wood’s death.

Julia’s other notable works include The Burning Season, The Tempest, and the Kiss of the Spider Woman. After his death, Julia’s remains were transported to Puerto Rico. His last film, Street Fighter, was dedicated to him and released two months after he passed away.

Despite his family’s history of heart attacks, John Candy ate excessively, especially when under stress. Like his father before him, he died of a heart attack at a young age. Candy was just 43 at the time of his death. Wagons East and Canadian Bacon, his last two films, were both posthumously released.

Harlow’s stock rose so rapidly that she soon rivaled stars like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. Sadly, the Platinum Blonde died of kidney failure while still working on the film Saratoga. To finish the film, they had to use a lookalike and a voice actress to fill in the gaps.

River Phoenix overdosed on a speedball at The Viper Room, a West Hollywood bar outside of which he dropped on the sidewalk convulsing. He had just spent a few weeks filming his last project, Dark Blood, in Utah prior to his death. The film was only completed ten years later.

We’ll never know what could’ve come out of his attempt to follow in Bruce Lee’s footsteps. Brandon was shot with a prop gun armed with improperly prepared dummy bullets during the filming of The Crow. He died at the age of 28, along with his dreams.

Welles is remembered for Citizen Kane and works such as Touch of Evil and The Magnificent Ambersons. Surprisingly, he was also the voice for Unicron in Transformers: The Movie. He last appeared in Someone to Love, which was released two years after his death.

Burton wasted his talents by turning to the bottle. Instead of fulfilling his potential, it was his tempestuous marriage with Elizabeth Taylor that kept him in the news. Long gone were his strong performances in films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Taming of the Shrew. He died at the age of 58 before completing the adaptation of George Orwell’s famous novel 1984.

During a break from filming The Warrens of Virginia, her Civil War costume caught fire from a flipped match and burned fiercely. She suffered excruciatingly from this twist of fate and died the next day.

Bruce Lee’s death was caused by cerebral edema. It came as a shock to the world as he was only 32 at the time. He didn’t live to witness the release of Enter the Dragon, which is widely regarded as the best martial arts film ever made.

Many of Tracy’s movies were in partnership with film director Stanley Kramer, including his last, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, which he was able to finish seventeen days before he suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 67.

Aptly nicknamed the King of Hollywood, Gable starred in around a hundred films, and for thirty years, he was a steady leading man, known for movies like Gone With the Wind and It Happened One Night. His final work was The Misfits, which also starred Marilyn Monroe. It was regarded as his best performance yet, but he died three months before it hit theaters.

What also limited his success in getting the roles he desired was his thick Hungarian accent. His situation worsened when it became apparent that he was suffering from alcoholism and morphine dependence. A year after he died, footage of him standing by a graveyard appeared in the film Plan 9 from Outer Space.

James Dean had a predilection for improvisation, and this was apparent in his portrayal of Jett Rink in the film Giant. By being himself and tapping into his inner qualities and experiences, he was able to capture the spirit of teens at the time in Rebel Without a Cause. His last two films were released after his death in a car accident in 1955.

She tried to get more mature roles in an attempt to win an Oscar, but her fortunes would not have it that way. So, she stuck it out in the screwball theme. Lombard died in a plane crash at the age of 33. Her last film, To Be or Not to Be, came out in theaters a month after her tragic death.

Irwin was working on a documentary that involved filming stingrays on the Great Barrier Reef in 2006. He got too close to one of his subjects and was stabbed in the chest by its poisonous barb. The documentary was completed in spite of his death. It was called Ocean’s Deadliest and was narrated by Philippe Cousteau.

Little did the world know that their darling was struggling with depression. In fact, she was hospitalized with the condition before the filming of Something’s Got to Give. Monroe recommenced work, starring alongside Dean Martin in My Favorite Wife. Tragically, she died in 1962 of an overdose. The remake of the 1940s film was never finished.

Unfortunately, the Latin Lover died at the tragically young age of 31 due to peritonitis. He was so popular that they even named his health condition Valentino’s syndrome. He continued to work despite being ill, and as a result, The Son of the Sheik and several films were released posthumously.

Vic Morrow was in the Indian Dunes in California filming Twilight Zone: The Movie when, along with two child actors, he was killed in a freak accident. A hovering helicopter dropped on top of them, and its rotors beheaded Morrow and a child, crushing the three of them with its weight. This was one of the most horrific accidents in movie history.

He was set to reprise that role for Toy Story 4 when he died at the age of 90 from kidney failure. He hadn’t yet begun working on the movie, but Pixar didn’t want to change the character’s voice. So, they used previous recordings of him as Mr. Potato Head, stringing them together to create new dialogue. Director Josh Cooley said at the movie premiere that he just couldn’t imagine anyone filling in for Rickles.

Poltergeist went on to become a horror movie classic, and Heather reprised her role as Carol Anne Freeling – the child who eerily chattered with television static in the middle of the night – in the next two installments. Sadly, the child actress died of congenital stenosis when Poltergeist 3 was still being filmed. It was eventually released months after O’Rourke’s death, but it turned out to be the lowest-grossing installment of the horror trilogy.

He reprised his role in The Last Return of the Musketeers but fell from his horse during the shooting in 1988. Roy died of a heart attack in a hospital in Madrid the next day, having suffered a broken pelvis and internal bleeding resulting from the trauma.

Power suffered a heart attack in Spain while filming a sword fight for the movie Solomon and Sheba. He died before he could reach the hospital. Although Power had already completed many scenes in the movie, he was replaced by his friend Yul Brynner.