Sean Bean is just one of those actors who always seem to die on-screen, and by the time “Fellowship of the Ring” came out, it became clear that the star would always perish. His post-“Lord of the Rings” films are riddled with deaths. In 2002’s “Equilibrium,” his character is shot. The British actor later appeared in Michael Bay’s “The Island,” which sees his supporting role die thanks to a hanging. Surprisingly, he doesn’t die in 2004’s “National Treasure,” which features him a key villain role.
In fact, many of Bean’s most prominent films from the 2000s, like “Troy,” “Silent Hill,” and “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” don’t feature the actor succumbing. By then, he was a major supporting player in blockbusters, and it was his smaller productions that featured him passing, such as the 2007 independent flick “Far North.”
In 2011, HBO debuted the genre-defining fantasy series “Game of Thrones” to rapturous acclaim. On the show, Bean’s Ned Stark is positioned as a leading player. Expectations were subverted for those unfamiliar with the books when the Stark clan leader is brutally decapitated, making it one of the show’s first shocking deaths — and arguably Bean’s best. Despite death being such a being big part of “Game of Thrones,” Bean didn’t give any of his co-stars advice when it came to dying, even though he has tons of experience.
