9 Times Sean Bean Has Died on Screen ...

1. Alec Trevelyan in Goldeneye

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

He surely must have known when he signed up to play Alec Trevelyan that he’d be contributing to the number of times Sean Bean has died on screen. Bond baddies never last to the start of the end credits – it’s not the done thing, old boy! In this Bond movie that starred Pierce Brosnan as the British superspy, Sean meets his demise by being dropped a few hundred feet onto the surface of a huge … now that would be telling wouldn’t it?

2. Ulrich in Black Death

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

You could never accuse Sean Bean of shying away from particularly gruesome screen deaths and this certainly isn’t one of his prettiest ends. But, well, the Black Death – aka the Bubonic Plague that ravaged Europe in the mid 14th century – wasn’t pretty. If you like movies full of medieval mayhem, religious mania and a bit of necromancy thrown in, along with murder and death most foul, you’ll love Black Death. You certainly won’t be exercising your smiling muscles.

3. Sean Miller in Patriot Games

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

The closest that the US has come to James Bond is Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. It seems only fitting therefore that as he has met his end at the hands of a British Government Agent, that another of Sean Bean’s screen deaths is thanks to the US Government Agent. (Although, it has to be said, Jack Ryan got him in 1992, and James Bond put him to his demise in 1995.) In Patriot Games, Sean turned his thick Yorkshire accent to Irish as a wayward IRA man.

4. Ranuccio in Caravaggio

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

Many British actors find roles in bodice rippers and costume dramas early in their career and it’s no different for Sean Bean. In his early years as an actor, Sean played Carver Doone (died), Lord Fenton in Scarlett (died), Robert Aske in Henry VIII (died), Robert Lovelace in Clarissa (died) but it all started with his movie role in another historical epic – Caravaggio. He played Ranuccio and yep, you guessed it, he died!

5. Lord Eddard Stark – Game of Thrones

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

Now I know you’re all going to scream at the screen when I say the only reason I started to watch GOT was because Sean Bean was going to be in it, so imagine my disappointment when he was killed off so early (I hadn’t read the books so I had no idea of his impending doom). But, GOT lovers, never fear, I didn’t stop watching it and am now a big fan.

6. Loki in Far North

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

I like to see old Seany get a bit of romance in his screen life and this one is very touching. This is a bizarre little movie. It’s intense and quite baffling too but, despite the love aspect, this is another of the times Sean Bean has died on screen – in all his naked glory this time!

7. Tadgh McCabe in the Field

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

In one of his early movies (1990), Sean Bean showed just how versatile an actor he would prove to be in playing his first Irishman, part of a family battling to save their land. I have to confess to not liking this film much but I’m including it because I don’t think there’ll be another time in his screen life when he will meet his death a la animal! He is pushed off a cliff by a herd of rampaging cows. Maybe they didn’t like his pretend Irish accent.

8. John Ryder in the Hitcher

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

I can never make up my mind if I prefer him when he’s dark and smouldering as an anti-hero or when he’s downright moody and malevolent, but it doesn’t matter because Sean Bean’s on-screen deaths are indiscriminate to the range of characters he plays. In The Hitcher, however, he plays a creepy guy who definitely deserves his comeuppance and rather nasty end.

9. Boromir in the Lord of the Rings

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com

Have you been waiting for this one on tenterhooks? By this time in his career (2001) Sean Bean was already well-established at playing accomplished on-screen deaths, so who better should Peter Jackson look to cast as the charming but oh so corrupt Boromir? And, just so we don’t get bored by the various methods used to kill him off, this time we’re treated to a flurry of Orc arrows. It made a nice change from guns, throat slittings and plague anyway, don’t you think?

Of all the times Sean Bean has died on screen I am glad to say that two of his greatest characters were left unscathed. Well actually that’s wrong. As Odysseus in Troy he gets a few sword scratches and bruises, and gets more than his fair share of bumps and grazes (and bullets and sword slashes) as the eponymous Sharpe, but he survives to play another day, and thankful I am for. Are you a fan? Did you know how many times poor Sean has met his end in the movies?