Top 10 TV Characters That Were Killed Off Because The Actors Left The Show

The story goes that after show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker released an episode of South Park titled "Trapped in the Closet," in which they make fun of Tom Cruise and Scientology, Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef and a known Scientologist activist, quit the show.

However, this turned out to be false when Hayes' son revealed that Hayes had a stroke and lost the ability to speak. Subsequently, Scientology quit for him. Hayes wasn't such a hypocrite that he would quit the show after it made fun of every other religion. As a result, Chef is killed in the most violent way possible in his last episode. He falls off a bridge, gets impaled by a tree branch, and then is eaten by a grizzly bear and a mountain lion.

Following multiple stints in rehab that put the show on indefinite hiatus, Charlie Sheen was finally fired from the show after he demanded an unreasonably high pay raise. He was already the highest-paid actor on TV at the time. Sheen also made some infamously heinous remarks about show creator Chuck Lorre.

It came as no surprise to viewers when CBS decided to kill off his character by having him fall off a Metro platform in the season nine premiere.

On the 14th episode of the 11th season of The Simpsons, the character was killed off because the voice actress, Maggie Roswell, had a pay dispute with the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Poor Flanders can never get a break, can he?

Heidi Swedberg's character was killed off due to incompatibility with other stars' comedic rhythm on the show. Basically, she was very hard to work with, so they killed the character off and let the actress go.

The actor and the directors had creative differences over where the character was going, and they decided that moving on was the best decision. So they killed off the character.

Kutner's suicide was scripted due to actor Kal Penn's decision to accept the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in President Barack Obama's administration.

While the writing team on Breaking Bad planned to have Tuco stick around for a while as one of Walter White's most dangerous adversaries, actor Raymond Cruz told them that he just couldn't handle playing the insane killer anymore.

The actor agreed to return for the first two episodes of the second season in order for the writers to adequately bring his character's arc to a close.

The actor Dan Stevens wanted to pursue other projects and opportunities. He said that Downton Abbey was very time-consuming and that it didn't leave much room for other projects.

Valerie Harper always wanted more and more money. When the network executives refused, she used a trick she often used: walk out on the show until her demands were met.

This time, however, they had enough and fired her. The character was killed off in a car accident and was replaced by Sandy Duncan as the kids' new mother figure.

Chevy Chase got into frequent spats with Community creator Dan Harmon and so he left the show. Pierce was killed off as a result.

Denise Crosby was unhappy with her role as Tasha, feeling like her character didn't have enough to do. The staff likely felt that the cast needed to be trimmed down anyway, so Tasha was killed in the episode "Skin of Evil."