Be Not Proud

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Cinemorgue, which features listings and descriptions of thousands of death scenes that are alphabetized by the names of actors and actresses, is grim and exhaustive and...valuable, I guess, but also kind of strange. I'd forgotten how many times Elke Sommer has been gruesomely killed on-screen. Two skiiing accidents, shot three times (machine gunned in 1969's The Wrecking Crew, the Dean Martin-Matt Helm movie), blown up, and bludgeoned to death.

Almost all movie deaths, it seems, are brutal, bloody, sudden, ghastly, traumatic and otherwise unpeaceful. Nod-off deaths -- like Sir Cedric Hardwicke 's passing in The Ten Commandments -- have been few and far between over the last 40 years. Is real-life death ever smooth and easy? Only if you do yourself in with pills. James Toback said during a phone chat, which is that (paraphrasing) "almost none of us are going to die as pleasantly as we'd like to...it's always under circumstances we can't foresee, much less plan for, and sooner than we'd like."

Note: all present and future mentions of cinemorgue.com are permanently indebted to Movie City News because Poland linked to it earlier today or last night.

comment #1

frankbooth says ...

I love Cinemorgue.

You know who dies a lot? Ted Levine. I was watching Heat and I realized that he's bought it in just about everything I've ever seen him in.

I wonder who the all-time movie-dyin' champion is. Probably some B-villain type like Michael Ironsides.

comment #2

frankbooth says ...

Holy shit, look up Sean Bean. Poor bastard.

comment #3

CinemaPhreek says ...

For a moment there I was thinking "Wow, talk about being on the same wavelength. I wasted 45 minutes last night when I stumbled across the site"

And then I remembered - Oh, yeah, I got there because of a link on Movie City News.

comment #4

dangovich says ...

Most of us just sort of waste away, which isn't very cinematic.

comment #5

York "Budd" Durden says ...

No wasting away for me. Blaze of glory, taking as many of you bastards with me as I can...me and Wells side by side on our motorsickles flinging razor-edged DVDs like ninja stars at all your pale, smooth necks.

comment #6

CinemaPhreek says ...

I think Justine Bateman takes the prize for... well, read and see.

comment #7

Rich S. says ...

No mention in James Gandolfini's entry of death in The Sopranos. And they do mention that Janeane Garafalo buys it during one episode, so they track the series.

I'd say that pretty conclusively settles THAT argument.

comment #8

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

Justine Bateman:

Kiss & Tell (1996) [Molly McMannis]: Dies (off-screen) of internal injuries when Pamela Gidley sticks a carrot up her anus. We see the detectives (Lewis Arquette, Richmond Arquette, and Peter Greene) standing over her afterwards and describing the state of her body, but the body itself is not shown. (Thanks to Dick Hertz)

comment #9

Eddie says ...

I have never seen a movie featuring Michael Wincott in which he lives. In fact, if I remember correctly, in the film "Metro" he dies in ever scene.

comment #10

corey3rd says ...

once I was in LAX and slightly recognized a Hong Kong actor while in line for food. i turned to him and said, "Did you die in a John Woo movie?"

comment #11

BurmaShave says ...

It's a statement to my love of Sean Bean, and my idiocy, that even on this thread for about 15 seconds I was freaking out that he'd really died.

comment #12

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

I have never seen a movie featuring Michael Wincott in which he lives. In fact, if I remember correctly, in the film "Metro" he dies in ever scene.

Just off the top of my head, he doesn't die in Oliver Stone's underrated Talk Radio, but he does have a great supporting role.

And he doesn't die in The Crow either...

just kidding on that one.

comment #13

actionman says ...

Eddie:

Wincott appears in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Doors and doesn't die in either of them. Granted, he's on screen in Diving Bell for about 1 minute total screen time but still.....

comment #14

CinemaPhreek says ...

Janeane Garafalo in Sopranos: that's REALLY stretching it. She was doing a cameo as herself, laying dead with Sandra Bernhard for about 5 seconds until someone yells "cut!" and they both get up.

comment #15

Rich S. says ...

I actually had no idea Garafalo was in The Sopranos at all, let alone whether she was killed.

This site seems very comprehensive, so I found it extremely odd that Cary Grant is not listed. Thinking back on it, I can't remember him ever dying in a movie. But he has to have, hasn't he?

comment #16

Mgmax says ...

I suspect he didn't think it was very Cary Grant to die on screen.

The only one I can think of is The Eagle and the Hawk (1933).

comment #17

Terry McCarty says ...

Eddie wrote:
I have never seen a movie featuring Michael Wincott in which he lives. In fact, if I remember correctly, in the film "Metro" he dies in ever scene.

He doesn't die in THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON, where he plays the disapproving brother of Sean Penn's character.

comment #18

Hallick says ...

"Just off the top of my head, he doesn't die in Oliver Stone's underrated Talk Radio, but he does have a great supporting role."

And I don't think anybody in that movie's had a better part since, save for maybe John McGinley. Wincott's performance alone is like having a roman candle jammed into your heart.

comment #19

CinemaPhreek says ...

Rich S - she isn't and she wasn't. Christopher goes to a MOVIE SET and sees them filming a scene with Garofalo, where she is being killed. So, no, she wasn't "on" the Sopranos.

It really amuses me when I see articles either about the show or about her which insinuate that she was a character on the show. It's like claiming Bill Clinton should put CONTACT on his resume.

comment #20

storymark says ...

I believe Wincott also survived Romeo Is Bleeding (it's not on the site, but it's been so long, I'm not 100% sure).

comment #21

joncro says ...

Best death scene ever is the crow who gets shot playing pool in 'Fritz the Cat'

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