I was being a bit morbid the other day and I began thinking about which actor has the best death scene in a film? The ones I came up with were:

Spencer Tracey in 'Captains Courageous', trapped in fishnets singing to keep a little boy's courage up.
Rod Taylor in 'Chuka', noble to the last, protecting the "wimmin folk" with a spear through the guts.
Michael Cain (Cane?) in 'Get Carter', oblivious to his assassin whilst walking on a dirty beach.

I was going to add Arnold Swarzenegger in Terminator II jumping into a crucible of hot metal but it was pointed out to me that not only was his character never alive in the first place but it is nearly identical to the death of Sigorney Weaver in Aliens III (?).

I was also going to ask who has made the worst job of a death scene but then I realised that John Wayne had hammed it up so badly as David Crockett in "The Alamo" that no one else was ever going to get close to his performance!

Sean Connery in The Untouchables.

As for worst death scene........... Definitely Tracey Shaw as Maxine in Corry. Although, admittedely, it was without question, the finest piece of acting that she'd partaken of during her stint on The Street.

I reckon any movie that Ben Affleck dies in is up there with the best. If only it would happen in the first 5 minutes instead of the last 5.

Seriously, my vote would go to Kevin Spacey in LA Confidential. A superb death scene. I heard he insisted they use real bullets to achieve a realistic death with realistic blood splatter. He actually did die before the standby trauma unit bought him back. Now that's commitment to the art of acting in my book!

Of course this is only a rumour... ok ok, I made it up.

Has to be the great James Cagney-'Look at me Ma.I'm on top of the world!'

No contest! Peter Sellers in 'The Party', where he is playing an Indian (from India) cavalry bugler... it is hilarious!

Speaking of India, what about the demise of Gunga Din?

Why, it was so moving, Kipling even wrote a poem about it!

The death of MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI in the movie Gandhi.

Oh God, Wez! Does Maxine die? We're so deplorably BEHIND here in Canada! And my new work schedule doesn't allow me to even keep up with the slow motion "street". Geez.

Best cinematic death? Matthew Broderick in "Glory". I weep through the whole thing!

Paul Ruebens in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

Ace, you do know that the Gandhi death scene has been criticized because Attenborough has him saying "Oh god" when in fact the Mahatma's last words were "He Rama".. This may seem like a small and picayune point, though the more I think about it, it really isn't.

Cool : Do you think the rest of the world will understand "hey Ram" - they will most probably think it's a dying man's last spoken Gibberish! The death scene was 'remarkable' for people like me who were unfortunate to miss the live 'shooting'!

One of the most surreal murders on film occured in the 50's noir classic "The Big Combo", directed by Joseph H. Lewis. In it, Brian Donlevy plays an old-time ex-mob boss about to be slain by new boss Richard Conte's hitmen. Donlevy wears a hearing aid (it's already been used to torture tough cop Cornel Wilde). When Donlevy is about to be executed, Conte removes the hearing aid, saying "Now you won't hear the bullets." And the machine guns sputter away...in total silence! Wow! what a scene! tjoeb};>

Definitely Eric Draven in "The Crow" - both times. I mean, Brandon Lee as Eric... it just seemed strange to me saying that Brandon's death was best because he really died during the shooting...

Nice topic!

I'd have to agree with Sean Connery in The Untouchables, that was a great death scene. However, the death that always sticks out in my mind is Alan Rickman in "Die Hard." Seeing him fall off the side of the building (and he did actually fall for about 4 stories) just looks great. I love the surprised look on his face as he plummets to the earth.

Gotta be Charles Bronson in The Magnificent Seven. Three mexican boys swore to look after his grave and he tried to teach them to be proud of their fathers.
The line was "What's my name?" "Bernardo" "You're damn right!"
It's not nearly so dramatic in print.

The Rickman incident was good too but do you remember the Nazi in Indiana Jones (ARK) going over the cliff in the tank?

I think the scariest was in "Saving Private Ryan" when the Nazi slowly pushed the bayonet into the Jewish soldier and was calmly whispering to him the whole time.

Well there goes my happy mood
Maynooth

I'd go for Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus". He's up there being crucified, and his wife brings his little baby boy by in a chariot. "He's free, Spartacus."

I'm welling up.

The most unusual ways of dying are in The Omen movies. There are crow attacks, hangings, head severings, being buried alive in sand, freezing in ice, stabbings, etc. Except for Damien, no one lived to the next movie!

Sounds great, I'm sorry I missed those flicks.

John Hurt in Alien, when the alien exploded out of his chest...yeah, baby, talk about dying hard!!...oh, behave! Classic, classic gratuitously gory cinematic death!

And in "Dumb and Dumber" when the hitman ate the rat poison in the truck stop. Now I can't even think of CPR without laughing.

Okay Die Hard if you want to go for graphic, the guy in the back seat in Pulp Fiction.

Oops, sorry, it was an accident! C'mon you know I didn't mean it. Who's gonna call Harvey Keitel?

Cheers
Maynooth

Well,I don't know if it's because of my uncontrolable crush on him but I'll have to say Colin Farrell in "Minority Report". Mainly because it was so unexpected, and the gunshot scares the ca-rap out of everyone. You don't know what's happened and then you see that blood start to butterfly on Danny's chest. *so sad*

Well, my fave movie is Life As A House. I think Kevin Kline's death was my favorite cinematic death. The voice over and final scene of Hayden giving the house to the girl his grandfather had handicapped gave me chills. Love that movie. Espescially since the whole lead up was to the father's death, it made everything more traumatic when it actually happened.