An Oscar nominated dramatic performance, a role in a troubled production, and a final
farewell in a family comedy sequel.
Keep watching for the last on camera appearances of some of the greatest film icons.
Though his iconic, Oscar-winning role as The Joker in "The Dark Knight" was released posthumously,
"Brokeback Mountain" star Heath Ledger was filming Terry Gilliam's whimsical film "The
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" when he died in January 2008 from an accidental overdose
of prescription drugs.
The storyline was reworked, and other actors stepped in to play the same part, including
Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell.
In its review of the film, The New York Times notes how Ledger's death, quote, "haunts the
movie."
Before he died, Ledger's final public appearances were a series of filmed press junket interviews
for "I'm Not There," a Bob Dylan biopic, conducted mere weeks before his death.
Eerily enough, "I'm Not There" used a similar method of casting to the eventual final form
of "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," with Ledger just one of multiple actors who played
the iconic musician.
In one of his final questions, critic Brett Martin asks Ledger what his own biopic would
be titled, if he had other actors stepping in to play him.
Ledger's response is fitting enough:
“Yeah, I don't know.
Maybe 'I Wish I'd Done That'"
Chadwick Boseman rose to fame portraying iconic baseball player Jackie Robinson in "42."
He would go on to use those talents as he played other heroes of African American history,
including James Brown in "Get On Up" and Thurgood Marshall in "Marshall".
However, it was his role as a fictional hero that would bring Boseman his greatest fame:
T'Challa — the Black Panther — in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"This is your last chance.
Throw down your weapons, and we can handle this another way.”
Fans were shocked when Boseman died in 2020, his death making public a cancer diagnosis
that the actor had hidden from nearly everyone.
Shortly before he died, Boseman had posted a social media video promoting Operation 42,
a charity inspired by Jackie Robinson to raise funds for personal protective equipment at
hospitals servicing African American communities.
The video, in which Boseman appeared thinner than his muscular Marvel figure, prompted
concerns from fans about his health, questions that were answered when he ultimately passed
away.
Boseman's final role on camera was in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," released months after
his death — a part for which he was nominated for a posthumous Oscar.
At the ceremony, his co-star Viola Davis told E! News:
"He was authenticity on steroids [...] This person, this human being, this artist, did
not mistake his presence for the event."
A hero until the end.
"My Own Private Idaho" star River Phoenix was only 23 years old when he died after collapsing
outside iconic Los Angeles nightclub The Viper Room — reportedly after unknowingly being
given a "speedball" to drink by a friend.
His brother, actor Joaquin Phoenix, was the one who called 9-1-1 for help.
Phoenix was filming a Western called "Dark Blood" at the time of his death.
Years later, footage from the unfinished film found its way online as part of a crowd-funding
campaign from director George Sluizer to raise the money necessary to finish the movie.
The footage shows Phoenix as a handsome drifter of sorts, romancing a character played by
Judy Davis while avoiding the ferocious attention of Jonathan Pryce.
"Come on, hold it steady."
"I am."
"I said don't you move."
The director explained that the insurance company had wanted to destroy the footage,
as the half-done film would not be able to be released, but he had personally retrieved
it and saved it.
After the crowd-funding campaign, various versions of the film have screened in incomplete
form, including at the Berlinale film festival.
Carrie Fisher lived quite the life.
The daughter of Hollywood royalty Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, she shot to superstardom
in her own right when she played Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.
"You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."
"That doesn't sound too hard."
Fisher continued to work throughout her life both in front of and behind the camera, acting
in films like "The Blues Brothers" and helping to write screenplays for movies such as the
semi-autobiographical "Postcards from the Edge."
In the 2010s, Fisher enjoyed a bit of a career revival as the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy
hit theaters.
She reprised her role as Leia — now a general — in both "The Force Awakens" and "The Last
Jedi."
Unfortunately, before the release of the latter film, Fisher died from a heart attack suffered
while on a plane.
She had shared photos of herself on social media days earlier, posing with her dog Gary
Fisher alongside "Catastrophe" co-star Sharon Horgan.
Her last filmed role was in the U.K. sitcom "Catastrophe."
Fisher would later appear in 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker," the final film in the "Star
Wars" sequel trilogy, but her performance was crafted through a combination of archive
footage and CGI.
The "Catastrophe" episode aired months after her death.
Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, died one day after her daughter.
Whitney Houston is a music legend, known around the world as "The Voice" for her heavenly
vocals and infectious pop songs.
But it shouldn't be forgotten that she was a film icon as well, having starred in classics
like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale," not to mention her incredibly fun performance
in the 1997 adaptation of "Cinderella."
"Who are you?"
"I'm your fairy godmother, honey."
"You?"
"You got a problem with that?"
Houston died on Grammy weekend in 2012 due to accidental drowning.
The final video of the star shows her joining fellow singer Kelly Price on stage to perform
"Jesus Loves Me" just two days before her death.
After the song ends, she stands on stage for a moment, beaming out over the crowd, basking
in the love of her fans, and then is led offscreen.
Her final film role was in "Sparkle," opposite Jordin Sparks, which was released several
months after she died.
Houston played Sparks' mother in a remake of the classic '70s film, and she told BlackFilm.com
that she had a hand in updating the story so that the main characters sang gospel music.
She also told the site that she did not feel the role — her first in 15 years — was
a comeback.
She said:
"I think of it as a gift God gave me to contribute to a cast of people who are working as hard
— if not harder — than I."
Alan Rickman rocketed to fame when he was cast as Hans Gruber, the villainous German
who holds Nakatomi Plaza hostage in "Die Hard."
He followed it up with roles in films as varied as "Galaxy Quest" and "Robin Hood: Prince
of Thieves," and perhaps most iconically, he played the sinister Potions professor Severus
Snape in the "Harry Potter" films.
Rickman died in 2016 from cancer.
His final live-action performance was for war drama "Eye in the Sky," a film about the
ethics of drone warfare.
A few months before he died, what would be Rickman's final on-camera interview took place
on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon."
Rickman and Fallon memorably inhaled helium from balloons together, playing on the fact
that one of Rickman's most recognizable qualities was his deep, resonant voice.
"This is very difficult, but it's Harry Potter."
Brittany Murphy won fans in the '90s thanks to her spunky role as Tai in "Clueless".
Roles in films like "8 Mile" and "Girl, Interrupted" followed.
She unfortunately passed away unexpectedly in 2009 from pneumonia — though questions
have persisted about the role that prescription drugs and, possibly, mold may have played
in her untimely passing.
Though her final on-screen performance was in a thriller called "Something Wicked," which
was released years after her death, Murphy's last time on camera was just a few weeks before
she died.
She attended an event at a clothing store popup in Hollywood and spoke with Access Hollywood,
giving an interview that seemed charming at the time but now comes across as haunting.
"As far as having a New Years' Resolution, I'd love to have a child next year."
Murphy was married to a screenwriter named Simon Monjack at the time of her death.
Eerily, Monjack died several months after his wife of similar causes.
It's fair to say that in all of Hollywood's history, few celebrities have contained as
many multitudes as Elizabeth Taylor: child actor, tabloid fixture, respected actor, trailblazing
activist — she was the full package, and then some.
Her iconic acting career included roles in classic films like "Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and devoted fans followed the ups and downs of her tumultuous
personal life through eight marriages and more than 100 hospitalizations.
Taylor was one of the first stars to acknowledge the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and she became one
of the hardest-working celebrity activists helping to seek a cure.
"Funding for this bill has been, at best, totally inadequate."
After the death of her close friend Rock Hudson, she helped found amfAR, the leading advocacy
and research organization for those living with the disease.
The actor became somewhat of a recluse in her final years, due to various health issues.
On one of her last red carpet appearances, Taylor was asked if she'd ever get married
again.
Her response was both amusing and legendary:
"Nooooooooo!"
His too-cool image has come to represent a certain era of Americana, symbolizing both
the rebelliousness of youth and the eternal beauty of youth lost too soon.
When James Dean died at the age of 24, the iconic actor wasn't really famous yet.
His starring role in "East of Eden" was the only film that had been released when he passed
away in a fateful car crash on a lonely stretch of California highway.
"Rebel Without a Cause," his most iconic film, was still a month away from hitting theaters.
Dean had just finished filming the generation-spanning Texas oil epic "Giant" at the time of his
death.
In the film, he plays an oil tycoon at war with the local family he used to work for,
played by Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor.
While shooting the movie for which he would be nominated for his second posthumous Oscar,
Dean appeared in a safe-driving PSA alongside actor Gig Young.
Instead of parroting the national slogan popular in the '50s — "Drive safely: the life you
save might be your own" — Dean ad-libbed.
He instead eerily warned viewers:
"Take it easy driving.
The life you might save might be mine."
Less than two weeks later, he would be dead.
Though he had roles in classic films like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid," and "The Long, Hot Summer," legendary film star Paul Newman didn't win
a competitive Oscar until 1986's "The Color of Money."
He was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994, in part because 100% of the
proceeds from his mega-successful Newman's Own salad dressing empire still go to charity.
"I'm going with him all the way."
Newman's once-prolific career slowed down in his later years.
His final live-action film role was in 2002's "Road to Perdition," which netted him one
final Oscar nomination.
He formally retired from acting in a 2007 interview with Barbara Walters, telling her:
"I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level that I would want to."
However, the actor was still his charming, active self – footage from the interview
shows him giving Walters a ride in his race car.
Like his one-time friend James Dean, Newman had a love of racing.
His final on-camera interview, six months before he died of lung cancer, was with the
Fine Living Network.
Newman could be seen coughing as he reflected on trying to keep healthy as he aged, telling
author Renée Loux that he was, quote, "working on my body at the moment."
Loux reflected to Inside Edition:
"His presence is at once overwhelming, and his eyes really are that blue.
You know, the 'weak in the knees' blue."
In his early career, Marlon Brando was one of the hunkiest actors in Hollywood.
"Oh, hi.
Where's the woman?"
However, later in life, he developed a host of health problems — something that happens
to the best of us — and died of pulmonary fibrosis [PUHL-muh-neh-ree fie-BRO-siss] in
2004.
His final on-screen role was in "The Score," a heist film that teamed him with Robert De
Niro, who had played a younger version of Brando's character in "The Godfather Part
II."
Brando was reportedly so difficult to work with at the end of his life that he supposedly
refused to smile in what would ultimately be his final scene ever on camera — the
smile was later added digitally.
Weeks before his death, Brando reprised his role in "The Godfather" for a video game adaptation
of the iconic film, fittingly delivering his last lines for a character on his deathbed.
Filmed roles aside, one of Brando's final public appearances was in 2001, a few years
before his death, at a Michael Jackson celebration.
The King of Pop reportedly personally paid Brando a million dollars for his participation.
Brando's long speech, which was rambling and borderline incomprehensible, was ultimately
cut from the television broadcast of the event — an unfortunate end to a legendary career.
No actor in Hollywood history exemplifies both the glamour of Tinseltown and its dark
underbelly quite like Marilyn Monroe.
The blonde bombshell led classic films like "Some Like It Hot" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,"
and a certain subway-grate-and-white-dress set photograph from "The Seven Year Itch"
is one of the most iconic images in all of cinema.
Monroe had a dark side, including a difficult upbringing, an addiction to pills, and a famously
troubled love life.
Monroe's last completed film was "The Misfits," one of her signature roles.
"I think you're the saddest girl I've ever met."
"You're the first man that's ever said that.
I'm usually told how happy I am."
Behind-the-scenes photos from the set show an actor coping with her addictions and her
depression.
According to the Independent, Monroe struggled during the filming of 1962's "Something's
Got to Give."
A documentary about the troubled set claimed:
"[Monroe would] drift through her scenes in a depressed and drug-induced haze."
She was ultimately fired from the film, in part because director George Cukor was angry
about her now-infamous performance of "Happy Birthday Mr. President" for then-President
John F. Kennedy.
She would be dead within three months.
However, "Something's Got to Give" wasn't Monroe's final time on camera.
She was captured on a fan's home video mere weeks before her death during a beach photoshoot
with photographer George Barris, posing for some of the most intimate photos of her life.
Film legend Robin Williams, star of "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Jumanji," and too many other
classics to name, died by suicide in 2014.
The actor was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease shortly before his death, and after he died,
it was revealed that he had Lewy Body Dementia.
His wife Susan wrote about her husband after his death:
"Robin is and will always be a larger-than-life spirit who was inside the body of a normal
man with a human brain.
He just happened to be that 1 in 6 who is affected by brain disease."
The funnyman's final time seen on film was in "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb"
— as Teddy Roosevelt.
The 2020 documentary "Robin's Wish" chronicles the actor's last days, including behind-the-scenes
footage of his work on "Night at the Museum."
That film's director, Shawn Levy, reveals:
"The last movie -- It was clear to all of us on that set that something was going on
with Robin."
A few days before his death, he attended an art gallery show in the Bay Area, showing
work by a local artist who had become a friend.
The final photos taken of the star show him in a black suit, speaking with the other attendees.
"Smile, my boy.
It's sunrise."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.