Don't Kill Sean Bean! Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Fellowship of the Ring

"The Fellowship of the Ring" is the first of the three "Lord of the Rings" films directed by Peter Jackson. Sean Bean plays Boromir, one of the nine members of the "Fellowship" of the title, who set out with the aim of destroying the One Ring. Sadly, Boromir doesn't get anywhere near the end of the quest.

He attempts to take the Ring from Frodo, thinking he can use it himself to save his people, but then dies heroically, riddled with arrows, while defending the hobbits from a group of attacking Uruk-hai.

Answer: Game of Thrones

Sean Bean starred as Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark in the first (2011) series of the TV show "Game of Thrones", based on George R. R. Martin's fantasy novels set in the kingdom of Westeros. He was very much the star name in the cast, playing one of the main characters, so it came as a bit of a shock (except presumably to the millions of people who had previously read the book) when he had his head chopped off in the final episode.

Answer: Black Death

The 2010 film "Black Death" starred Sean Bean in the role of Ulric, a medieval knight who is looking for a village whose population appears to be immune to the plague (or Black Death) which is spreading through the country. Ulric ends up being captured by the villagers and tied by his arms and legs to two horses.

When it turns out that he is himself infected by the plague, the villagers whip up the horses so they pull Ulric apart.

Answer: Patriot Games

In the 1992 spy thriller "Patriot Games", Sean Bean makes the mistake of coming up against Harrison Ford, playing Tom Clancy's hero Jack Ryan. Playing an IRA terrorist named Sean Miller, Bean has a climactic fight in a speedboat with Ford's character. During the fight, he is first impaled on an anchor, which would be enough to finish off most people, but his actual death occurs when the boat runs aground and explodes.

Answer: Lorna Doone

In a 1990 television adaptation of R. D. Blackmore's classic novel "Lorna Doone", Sean Bean played the villainous Carver Doone, head of a family of outlaws living in a remote Exmoor valley in Devon. Carver lusts after the virtuous Lorna, another member of the clan, but she (naturally) is in love with the hero, John Ridd.

In the story's climactic scene, John and Carver fight each other, and Carver sinks to his death after falling into a quagmire.

Answer: Don't Say A Word

"Don't Say A Word" is a 2001 thriller about the search for a missing gemstone worth $10 million. Sean Bean plays Patrick Koster, the leader of a gang which stole the gemstone ten years earlier. It turns out that the gem is now hidden in a child's doll that was unexpectedly buried with the corpse of the gang member who stole it.

At the end of the film, Sean Bean's character is buried alive by an earth-moving machine while trying to retrieve the gem.

Answer: Caravaggio

One of Sean Bean's earliest film appearances was in Derek Jarman's 1986 film "Caravaggio", about the life of the Italian artist. Bean plays a street fighter called Ranuccio, who becomes a model and lover to Caravaggio. A jealous triangle develops between Caravaggio, Ranuccio, and the latter's girlfriend Lena. Ranuccio drowns Lena so he and Caravaggio can be together, but Caravaggio (who also loved Lena) cuts Ranuccio's throat.

Answer: Black Beauty

Anna Sewell's famous 1877 novel about a horse, "Black Beauty", has been adapted for film and television many times. In a 1994 film directed by Caroline Thompson, Sean Bean played the role of Farmer Grey, Black Beauty's first owner. He is a good man who treats his horses well, but eventually he sells Black Beauty to a new owner, and his role in the movie is over As a result, he never has a chance to die by being kicked to death by a horse, dying in a stable fire, or falling down a well, any of which could easily have happened to him in another film.

Answer: The Field

This is one of Sean Bean's more unusual deaths. In the 1990 film "The Field" he plays Tadgh McCabe, son of the Irish farmer Bull McCabe, played by Richard Harris. At the end of the film, the old farmer, who has gone insane, herds his cattle together and tries to drive them off a cliff. Tadgh attempts to stop him, but unfortunately he gets caught up in the stampeding herd and goes off the cliff himself, falling to his death.

This incident is known by Sean Bean fans as the "Death by Cow" fatality.

Answer: Far North

Sean Bean does keep turning up in the oddest of films. "Far North" is a 2007 independent film directed by Asif Capadia, set in the Siberian tundra. Sean plays a Russian soldier who is rescued from freezing to death by two lone women, Saiva (Michelle Yeoh) and Anja (Michelle Krusiec), who later turn out to be mother and daughter.

After a series of events rather too gruesome to describe here, Sean's character (who calls himself Loki) runs off naked into the frozen tundra. Although he doesn't actually die on screen, it is clearly implied that he freezes to death soon afterwards.