Bean There, Done That: What Is Sean Bean's Favorite On-Screen Death?

If one man knows how to bring a noble death to our screens, it is #SeanBean. Since his first foray into acting in 1983, Bean has created quite a talent for his elaborate deaths across the big and small screen. From plunging off a satellite dish in Cuba to being pulled apart by horses, being impaled on an anchor to having his head lopped of in royal court, the gruff Yorkshireman knows where his skillset lies — and it isn't just dressing as a woman for BBC drama Accused.

Interestingly, although Bean has got a reputation for being the most killed man in Hollywood, he has died nowhere near as many times as the legendary John Hurt. However, give Sean some credit, he has died in nearly a third of his 70 appearances.

It's been nice knowing you.

While fans all have their favorite demises — mine is "for England James" as he drops to his death in 1995's GoldenEye — Bean himself isn't afraid to weigh in on the situation.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the accomplished actor revealed that his favorite death was as Boromir in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It is certainly one of the more epic of his deaths. Taking a valiant hail of arrows in the chest while protecting the precious hobbitses, Boromir then slumped to the floor and was tended to by his Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn. Bean joked:

“It’s my favorite death scene, and I’ve done a few. You couldn’t ask for a more heroic death.”

Valar Morghulis - All Men Must Die

As one of the saddest parts of Jackson's trilogy, Boromir sealed his own fate early on, but at least he got a redemptive story arc to wave him off.

After toying with using CGI arrows, director Peter Jackson went with the old-fashioned approach and affixed real arrows to a metal breastplate under Bean's clothes. As "action" was called, Bean had to mime being shot and then drag out his achingly long death.

As much as a character can be remembered for a bloody bye-bye, those final words that you utter are just as important. We have seen so many Hollywood actors ham up their deaths, while Bean always retains a British stiff upper-lip about it. For Boromir, Bean, Jackson, and Mortensen discussed it over some late night beers. The trio settled on the tragic, "My brother, my captain, my king."

It is easy to see why the death struck such a chord with both fans of the series and Bean, however, it still doesn't have the lasting horror of seeing his head on a pike at King's Landing in #GameofThrones.

Being a man with such a knack at getting whacked, Bean also had some advice for those who find themselves faced with a dramatic swansong:

“You can’t show off. You can’t be vain or posing…. Because every time you die, it’s a big f—ing moment!”

Succinct and sound advice there from the expert. So next time you feel like dying on screen, just think, "What would Sean Bean do?"

(Source: Entertainment Weekly)