18 Memorable Moments Actors Appeared in Movies After Their Death
While I remain inconsolable over the recent passing of Dame Angela Lansbury , there is some comfort in the news that the actor, who has never officially retired, will appear on screen for the last time in Benoît Blanc’s upcoming Rain Johnson caper, The Glass Bow: A “. Knives Out Mystery, which is in limited release ahead of its Netflix debut in December. Fittingly, she would be joined by the late Stephen Sondheim, who also made a cameo appearance (Sondheim, of course, gave Lansbury one of his most iconic stage roles, Mrs. Lovett in the original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd ).
Posthumous film appearances often lend unintended overtones of tragedy, whether due to the performers in question leaving before their time or, in some cases, being captured through accidents or negligence during production. It’s much easier to view the last roles, like those of Lansbury and Sondheim, who died at 91 and 96, as the last goodbyes to talents who continued to work (happily, it seems) until the very end. We should all be so lucky. Here are 18 memorable performances by actors who died before the movies were released.