Movies and TV shows with dying actors and actresses (Law & Order, television, rock)

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Have you seen any movies or television shows featuring actors and actresses who were obviously showing signs of terminal illness?

[Meyerland]

Rock Hudson appeared on the Doris Day talk show, suffering from the last stages of AIDs.

[TamaraSavannah]

The first Mrs. Kravitz on Bewitched was dying of cancer.

[Unsettomati]

Edward G. Robinson was dying of cancer during the shooting of Soylent Green - he was dead less than two weeks after the filming of his scenes wrapped.

Of course, this final scene - the last one Robinson would ever film - was of his character being euthanized.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvxpETbsn08

[P47P47]

Michael Landon on The Tonight Show.

Warren Zevon on Late Night with David Letterman.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

How about Nancy Marchand on "The Sopranos"? I wonder if she had to have oxygen between takes?

[Zelpha]

Orson Welles! He passed away just a few hours after being on the Merv Griffin Show.

http://youtu.be/YZEWy--VsBQ

Brilliant man.

[CoolZombie]

Coach the bartender on Cheers looked very sickly before he died. His character started off as an exuberant old man but the actor Nicholas Colasanto got cancer and he started making shorter appearances where he barely talked. Also Chris Farley hosted SNL 2 weeks before he died, he wasn't exactly dying but he was a heavy drug addict and it showed since he was barely able to perform in the sketches and I was a kid watching it and even then I knew something was wrong with him.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Years of heavy drinking took a toll on Errol Flynn's appearance after World War Two. Same with William Holden in his later years.

Jerry Orbach was dying of cancer when he appeared in the short-live Law & Order : Trial By Jury.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCH_-xDbJEg

[djmilf]

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

Edward G. Robinson was dying of cancer during the shooting of Soylent Green - he was dead less than two weeks after the filming of his scenes wrapped.

Of course, this final scene - the last one Robinson would ever film - was of his character being euthanized.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvxpETbsn08

I remember watching Soylent Green (again) on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel. In the commentary after each movie shown on TCM, the host usually provides some further insight into the film just presented. For Soylent Green, the host commented that Edward G Robinson didn't tell anyone about his cancer. But the day that Robinson was slated to film his last scene, he shared with Charleston Heston the fact that Robinson was dying.

This Charleston Heston quote about Robinson and and his participation in the film is from the Wikipedia article:

"He knew while we were shooting, though we did not, that he was terminally ill. He never missed an hour of work, nor was late to a call. He never was less than the consummate professional he had been all his life. I'm still haunted, though, by the knowledge that the very last scene he played in the picture, which he knew was the last day's acting he would ever do, was his death scene. I know why I was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him."