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Those watching Amazon’s Legally Blonde prequel series Elle was surprised recently, when the show offered a dead-on look with James Van Der Beek. The actor, who died in February aged 48, had an interesting role as a crooked district manager. Like many of his roles since Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek’s work was bright and cheerful.
However, Van Der Beek is far from the only actor who appeared on screen after his death. Here are some common postmortem practices.
Robert Forster, Hail Saul
Forster had a small but important role in Breaking Bad, playing a vacuum cleaner whose role was to hide from law enforcement criminals. While other actors have only used form as an imaginative tool, Forster excelled in this role. He was quiet, funny and had no good manners. His appearance in Better Call Saul was minimal – briefly accepting the end of Jimmy McGill – but the groundwork laid in the previous show meant that the cameo felt good.
Miguel Ferrer, Twin Peaks: The Return
The entire series of Twin Peaks: The Return looks a little sketchy, thanks to the number of actors who died between production and broadcast. Catherine E Coulson, Warren Frost and Marvin Rosand all shot their parts shortly before they died. However, as FBI agent Albert Rosenfield, Ferrer had a major role in each of them. Age had messed up parts of his character since the first Twin Peaks aired, and his performance was so poignant that he was nominated for a Saturn Award.
Carrie Fisher, Tragedy
When you think of Fisher’s posthumous roles, chances are you’ll think of the kind of CGI that Star Wars joined to fill the void in the ninth installment. But the best performance, and the most appropriate, came in Catastrophe, where Fisher played a real character. As Rob Delaney’s mother, Fisher was a real monster: rude, cruel, ruthless and very funny. He filmed the third series before his death, and its final episode is dedicated to him.
Bernard Cribbins, Doctor Who
Wilf Mott was an important part of Doctor Who lore, a great confidant who started out as Donna Noble’s grandmother, grew to become the Doctor’s companion and became a father figure along the way. Cribbins last played Wilf in 2022’s Wild Blue Yonder, in a wheelchair, just months before his death. The drama was so good – all involved must have known it would have been the last. It’s hard to think of a better send off for such a beloved player.
Chadwick Boseman, What If…?
Boseman’s death came as a shock to the world, especially since he was at the top of his game. His last film (posthumously released) in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom earned him an Oscar nomination. However, the following year, the voice part he recorded for the Marvel animated series What If…? the list came out. Playing Black Panther’s T’Challa, his most famous role, Boseman delivers a lighthearted and mischievous look that doesn’t show the illness he’s suffering from.
Ray Liotta, Blackbird
Liotta broke out late before his death, stealing the show for David Chase’s The Many Saints of Newark and winning a posthumous Emmy nomination for Dennis Lehane’s Black Bird. As James “Big Jim” Keene, Liotta plays Taron Egerton’s father, an FBI agent who agrees to go undercover to stop a serial killer. However, he only makes his position his own. The result – equal parts romance and horror – was arguably the best of all time.
John Spencer, The West Wing
Spencer’s death occurred during production of the series finale of The West Wing. So, the show decided to go fast and build its main election episode around it. This in itself was moving, giving the show and the audience a chance to empathize with both the actors and the characters. But Spencer was very weak in the games she filmed before her death, which made her final appearance inevitable and unspeakable.
Rob Reiner, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness
We’ll finish with the latest. Rob Reiner’s final appearance came seven months after his mysterious death, on Larry David’s autobiographical show. It’s the right thing to do, as he plays George Washington, announcing that he doesn’t want a third term as President to preserve the sanctity of the Constitution. What follows are several minutes of viewers – especially David – predicting the rise of Trump many years into the future. As chaos erupts in front of him, Reiner sighs, “We’re tired.”
