Author Existence Failure: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am sixty years old and fat, and you don't want me to [[Person as Verb|'pull a]] [[The Wheel of Time|Robert Jordan]]' on you and deny you your book."''
|'''George R.R. Martin''' on ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Dance with Dragons]]'' in 2009}}
A [[Fandom]]'s worst nightmare.
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Please note that this trope applies when a creator (writer, director, etc.) ceases work on a project, not a participant (actor, well... mostly actors) unless they had significant input.
Not to be confused with the criticism trope known as "[[Death of the Author]]". Or [[Apocalyptic Log]]. See also [[The Character Died with Him]], where the show goes on without the character a dead actor portrayed, and [[Fake Shemp]], where there is an attempt to disguise the absent actor. Contrast [[Outlived Its Creator]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* When [[Osamu Tezuka]] died, he left his life's work ''[[Phoenix]]'' unfinished. Which is an absolute shame, as he quite clearly had great plans for it. Had he stayed alive to finish it, the separate stories of each time period in each volume would eventually converge at a central point, the "present", and tying all the loose ends of the Phoenix's story together. Now we can only wonder...
* Although Kentaro Miura is still quite alive and healthy, many fans fear that he will eventually die before completing ''[[Berserk]]'' due to the fact that only a handful of chapters are released every year.
* Noboru Yamaguchi
* Ken Ishikawa, the creator of ''[[Getter Robo]]''. Though he did leave some notes behind, they were apparently only for Getter Robo Hien - a prequel. The cliffhanger ending of ''Getter Robo Āḥ'', the latest series chronologically, has yet to be resolved.
* The director of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team]]'', Takeyuki Kanda, died while the OVA was still being produced. One effect of that was that it took over three years to finish it, making it the longest-running single [[Gundam]] production until [[Gundam Unicorn]], except the long running period for that has been planned from the start.
** And then, a decade and a half later, the guy who took over for him died while working on another series, the as-of-yet unreleased ''[[Towa no Quon]]''.
* ''[[Guyver]]'' fans also fear this with Yoshiki Takaya. We don't know much about his habits and health but since he's been doing his great work since the 80s, works a monthly manga, has no assistants, and takes breaks, we fear that he may cease to be before the manga ends. Up until a few months ago some thought the manga was beginning to wind up for a climax when a new thread appeared that could be sign of the end being a bit further away than we thought.
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* Perhaps not a total Existence Failure, but what happened to mangaka Kyoko Okazaki certainly comes close - in 1996, she was hit by a drunk driver before completing the last few chapters of her [[Body Horror]]-esque cosmetic surgery drama ''Helter Skelter''. The resulting accident [[And I Must Scream|left her quadriplegic and mute]]. The manga was finished in 2004, by her former assistant [[Sugar Sugar Rune|Moyoco Anno]] (yup, the wife of [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Hideaki Anno]]), working from Okazaki's storyboards and with her consultation, albeit on a [[Cliff Hanger]]. Poor Mrs. Okazaki's rehabilitation continues to this day - thirteen YEARS later.
* Takahiro Yamato of ''[[Kaze no Stigma]]'' is now dead.
* [[
** On the other hand, ''[[Crayon Shin-chan]]'' is more like a newspaper comic in terms of presentation (i.e., there's a "sliding timeline", and doesn't really have much of an overall plot; the anime is more like a [[Sitcom]] in this respect), so his death won't have that much of an impact on the original manga. The anime (which mostly uses original stories not found in the manga anyway) was put on hiatus for a few weeks after his death, but it was later announced it would continue. Now the word has come that (in another parallel with newspaper comics) the manga will also continue with a new author.
* Keiko Tobe, the mangaka of ''[[With the Light]]'', died of an unspecified illness in late January 2010, leaving the manga unfinished.
* [[Satoshi Kon]] suddenly died while making a film called ''The Dream Machine'', which he described as aimed at a younger audience but accessible for his older fans, with a cast made entirely of robots.
** Kon learned that he had a late-stage pancreatic cancer in April 2010, but initially didn't tell anyone because he didn't want to disturb
* ''[[MM!]]'''s author Akinari Matsuo passed away without warning on April 18, 2011. The phrasing of the letter, which does not mention accident nor illness, suggests suicide.
* Yasuo Yamada, most recognizable as the voice of ''[[Lupin III]]'', died of a brain hemorrhage in 1995, a month before the release of ''Farewell to Nostradamus'', the movie that would mark the series' return to the big screen in ten years. Fortunately, his will stated that, if he were to pass away, the baton should be passed to [[The Other Darrin|Kan'ichi Kurita]] (a popular comedian and impersonator), who currently voices him from that movie onwards. In honor of Yamada, a message was placed at the end of the film's credits: "To Yasuo Yamada, Eternal Lupin the Third: Thank you!".
* Similarly, fellow seiyuu [[Tomoko Kawakami]] spoke to [[Kunihiko Ikuhara]] to see if they'd [[Revolutionary Girl Utena|work together again]] in his latest series, ''[[Mawaru Penguindrum]]''. Sadly, Mrs. Kawakami succumbed to ovarian cancer in 2011.
== Comic Books ==
* Fellow comic book author Edgar P. Jacobs died while working on the second part of "Professor Sató's Three Formulae", the last volume of his ''[[Blake and Mortimer]]'' series. Unlike Herge, however, he had left plenty of notes and a complete outline of the story, which made it possible for another artist to complete the story... 13 years later. That's a cliffhanger for you.
** Of course, because he suspected he wouldn't finish "Three Formulae", Jacobs left the copyright of the series relatively open so it would eventually have an ending. Which worked, but also led to new ''Blake and Mortimer'' adventures made by two different writer/artist teams. One team [[They Just Didn't Care|actively tries to]] [[Dolled-Up Installment|ignore established canon.]] The other team is very good... but one of its members just died while working on the new volume "Curse of the Thirty Pieces of Silver", leading to new
* Steve Gerber died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, after plotting the penultimate issue of his Doctor Fate story in the ''Countdown to Mystery'' miniseries in his hospital bed. The final issue features four hypothetical endings, written by some of Gerber's friends in the industry.
* Drew Hayes, the author of ''[[Poison Elves]]'', had been planning to create new issues of the comic after having had to stop working on it due to his poor health. He died of a heart attack in 2007 before he had a chance to create more than a few sketches for the new stories.
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* ''[[Cerebus the Aardvark]]'' - Although Dave Sim did not die while making Cerebus (and is still alive as of 2010), he had "planned ahead" (and I'm using this term very loosely) in case this happened. He had mentioned in interviews that, if he DID die before completing the series, the series would continue all the way to issue 300, but all subsequent issues would only have the background art (by Sim's colleague Gerhard). There would be no characters nor text/narrative of any kind.
** If they had both died subsequent issues would have been kinda dull.
*** No joke. Before Gerhard joined him (around issue 80) Sim had said that if he died, he had left instructions for all the remaining issues to be published
* Marshall Rodgers died in the middle of ''Cap'n Quick and a Foozle''. The Captain's last known words: "Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you about this part."
* Willy Vandersteen left very specific instructions behind for the continuation of his ''[[Suske en Wiske]]'' franchise after his death. No character could ever age, or change, no main character may ever be dropped or added, and sex is a taboo, and a number of situations may never be altered (Lambik and Sidonia may never wed). Vandersteen died in 1990, but gave up artistic control of the ''Suske en Wiske'' franchise in 1972, to this day his wishes remain the guiding principles of the comic.
* [[Jack Kirby]] started a project called ''Phantom Force'' shortly before he died. [[Image Comics]] published the first two issues, with many of their top artists(Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Jerry Ordway, Jim Valentino and Keith Giffen, among others) inking Kirby's pages. The story arc was finished by Kirby collaborator Greg Theakston.
== Fan Works ==
* Fan author Brian Randall -- author of ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'' and many other fanfics -- [http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,102984.0.html took his own life on January 17, 2014], leaving ''Kyon'' and all his other in-progress work incomplete.
== Film ==
* It's more of an actor existence failure, but George Clooney has said there cannot and will not be another ''[[Ocean's Eleven|Ocean's]]'' movie without Bernie Mac.
* [[Akira Kurosawa]] died just before the shooting of ''[[After the Rain]]'' was scheduled to begin, so the movie was directed by his assistant Takashi Koizumi. ''The Sea is Watching'', another screenplay Kurosawa had written and intended to direct, was also filmed by another director in 2002.
* Parodied in ''[[Monty Python and
* ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback Of Notre Dame]]'' was the last film role of Mary Wickes; she played Laverne, the gargoyle. Jane Withers stepped in after Mary died of cancer.
* A unique subversion with [[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus]]. [[Heath Ledger]] died suddenly while filming it. Since the film is set in a multiverse, [[Johnny Depp]], Colin Farrell and Jude Law portray him in alternate universes (they gave their paychecks to Ledger's daughter).
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* [[Steven Spielberg]] brought ''[[A.I.: Artificial Intelligence|AI Artificial Intelligence]]'' to the screen after [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s passing on; in this case, though, Kubrick had had him in mind to direct (or at least produce) from the start.
* Kinji Fukasaku refused treatment in order to film ''[[Battle Royale]] 2,'' but died after directing only one scene. His son Kenta finished it.
* Simultaneously [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and subverted in Bob Fosse's ''[[All That Jazz]]''; a fictionalized account of Fosse's own life story, including a serious heart-attack which occurred during one of the most stressful periods of his
{{quote|
* The Polish film ''Passenger'' (''Pasazerka'') suffered AEF when director Andrzej Munk died suddenly in a road accident. The film is a series of flashbacks. When Munk died, many of the scenes taking place in the present day were unshot. His assistant decided to use still images for these scenes.
* After ''[[Halloween Resurrection]]'', series producer Mustapha Akkad died, dashing hopes for the original series to continue.
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** And then his son Brandon died from an accident involving a prop on the set of one of ''his'' movies, ''[[The Crow]]''. The film was finished using a body double, shot in shadows (such as when Sarah embraces Eric in his apartment), seen from the back (particularly noticable when Eric is walking back to his apartment after his ressurection), or [[Digital Head Swap|with Brandon's face added]] (in the fight scenes).
* H.B Haliki, the man that gave us the original ''[[Gone in Sixty Seconds]]'' (the independent film made in 1974 on a shoestring budget, not the 2000 remake with [[Nicolas Cage]]), died while filming the [[What Could Have Been|now unfinished]] ''Gone in Sixty Seconds 2'', when a stunt sequence malfunctioned and he was crushed by a water tower.
* Trinidad Silva died in an auto accident before he filmed all his scenes as Raul in ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]'', so the movie had to abort his subplot before {{spoiler|the poodles got their revenge.}} The film is dedicated to him.
* Likewise, "Red" the fire truck in ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]'' is silent as Joe Ranft, who was to voice the character, was killed in an road accident before the film was completed.
* [[Ernst Lubitsch]] died two weeks into shooting on ''[[That Lady in Ermine]]''. [[Otto Preminger]] stepped in to finish directing the film; he had replaced Lubitsch as director of ''A Royal Scandal'' for similar but less fatal reasons.
== Literature ==
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* Frank Herbert died in 1985, leaving his ''[[Dune]]'' series unfinished, though Herbert had been tacking books onto the series for some time. After his death, his son Brian Herbert, along with Kevin J. Anderson, wrote a handful of sequel and prequel books to the series.
* Arthur Ransome had an unfinished ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' book when he died. Nicknamed "Coots in the North,'' it had the Blacketts meeting the Death-and-Glories, and makes one weep for [[What Could Have Been]].
* Robert Jordan died before he could complete the "definitely, probably final" 12th book of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series, but he left behind extensive notes. Before his illness was discovered, he used to joke that if he died before the series was over, [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|his will was going to dictate that his notes be destroyed]]. Fortunately, he relented, and Brandon Sanderson was been picked to finish the series. Sanderson
* A lot of [[Franz Kafka]]'s stuff was unfinished, including the novel ''The Trial'' and a bunch of short stories. He still had fragments. What's more, he never intended to publish any of it; his papers were to be burned unread upon his death, and we only have them today because no one followed instructions. Many people have speculated that Kafka left his papers to Max Brod because he knew Brod would under no circumstances obey his request to have the papers burned.
* Stieg Larsson died of a massive heart attack in 2004 after having completed the third book of his supposed-to-be-decalogy ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|Millennium]]'' (''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', ''The Girl who Played with Fire'' and ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest''). All of the completed novels were only published after his death.
* [[Herman Melville]] died before completing his final novel, ''Billy Budd''.
* [[Vladimir Nabokov]] died before finishing ''[[wikipedia:The Original of Laura|The Original of Laura]]''. What remains is a series of notecards with isolated scenes and plot which only his family and a few selected scholars have seen. He requested that the notecards be burnt in the event of his death, but his son, believing that the story was Nabokov's best, agonized for 30 years before deciding in 2008 to publish it.
* Patrick O'Brian, author of
* Robert C. O'Brien, author of the Newbury Medal Award-winning ''[[The Secret of NIMH|Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH]]'', passed away shortly before finishing his [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] children's novel ''[[Z for Zachariah]]''. Luckily, his wife and daughter (authors themselves) finished it based off the notes he left behind and published it posthumously. His daughter, Jane Leslie Conly, went onto publish two more ''NIMH'' books.
* Mervyn Peake died when ''Titus Alone'', part three of his ''[[Gormenghast]]'' trilogy, was still in early drafts. His widow, Maeve Gilmore, submitted his manuscript to the publisher with notes on how it could be improved. Unfortunately, the publishers took these notes as the intended changes themselves, and published the novel as is. The novel was later re-edited by Langdon Jones into something (presumably) closer to Peake's intended version. In 2010, a manuscript of the fourth novel, completed by Gilmore, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/18/shortcuts-fourth-gormenghast-novel-discovered was discovered by the family.] It was published in 2011 as ''Titus Awakes''.
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* [[John Steinbeck]] spent the latter years of his life creating a modern English translation of the original ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur|Le Morte Darthur]]'', but died shortly after finishing Lancelot's story.
* The Chinese novel ''The Story of the Stone'' (a.k.a. ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'') breaks off at chapter eighty, although it isn't entirely clear to what extent this is because the author died. Current versions usually use an ending provided by a different, somewhat inferior, writer.
* In early 1990s, [[Strugatsky Brothers|Arkady & Boris Strugatsky]] set out to write a final [[Noon Universe]] novel. Unfortunately, Arkady Strugatsky died before the novel could be completed. Boris Strugatsky chose to shelve the novel rather than finish
* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] died with ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', his life's work, in a fragmentary and unfinished state; his son Christopher polished it into a publishable work. The younger Tolkien additionally published the 12-volume ''[[The History of Middle Earth|History of Middle Earth]]'' series of drafts, poems, and notes from his father's collection, and most recently the novel of ''[[The Children of Húrin|The Children of Hurin]]''. Several statements Tolkien made during life would seem to indicate that he didn't want any of his other peripheral works (''The History of Middle-Earth'', et al.) to ever be published. Fortunately, his son disagreed and we now have a relatively good understanding of how incredibly detailed Tolkien's world really was.
* This trope (and even the bad fanfic continuations) is [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The ancient Roman poet Virgil died before he could finish editing his epic poem ''[[The Aeneid]]''. Some short passages and placeholder lines remain, as well as some incongruities with the characters. He left instructions for it to be burned, though a literate slave read it and saved it because he recognized the merit of the work. The ending is often considered contradictory to the hero's nature, resulting in medieval poets and scholars writing terrible conclusions with a "book 13."
* [[Robert Anton Wilson]] died after completing only 3 books in his projected 5-book epic romance ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles''. There has been some talk of that his friends and/or children might finish the story based on his notes, but only time will tell whether that's possible. Wilson himself refrained from publishing the fourth book even two decades after the third came out.
* Although there wasn't much carryover between the ''[[Blandings Castle]]'' books, the death of [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] left the aptly-named ''Sunset at Blandings''
* Japanese Sci-Fi writer Sunao Yoshida died from lung disease just after it was announced that his science fantasy series ''[[Trinity Blood]]'' would be adapted into anime. He [[Orphaned Series|left it]] in a completely unfinished state, with the last book ending on a major cliffhanger {{spoiler|where main character Abel Nightroad apparently dies}}. He left enough notes for the next novel to see {{spoiler|that [[He's Just Hiding]]}}, but it still gives little satisfaction to the fans.
** His best friend Kentaro Yasui later stepped in to take over the novels, and the manga adaptation as well. Nobody ever bothered to continue the anime adaptation from its cliffhanger ending (closely related to that of Yoshida's last novel, but {{spoiler|including the scenes showing that Abel isn't really dead}}), though.
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* [[Evan Hunter]] (also known as Ed McBain, the pseudonym he used for his crime fiction) left the novel ''Becca in Jeopardy'', the second in his planned "Women in Jeopardy" series, unfinished at his death. The unfinished novel has not been published. Hunter's death also ended McBain's long-running "[[87th Precinct|Eighty Seventh Precinct]]" series. Hunter had once expressed an intention to write a final 87th Precinct book called ''Exit'', to be published after his death, but no such book has materialized.
* [[Madeleine L'Engle]] left unfinished a novel called ''The Eye Begins to See'' about the adult Meg Murry O'Keefe. There has been no word on whether the incomplete novel will be published, or whether it sheds any light on the question of what happened to Charles Wallace Murry as an adult.
* Chris Bunch, author of the "Seer King" and "Star Risk" series and co-author of the eight book space opera "Sten" passed away (fittingly for a soldier) on July
** Additionally, the ending of Bunch's "Corsair" leaves the reader with the sense that there will be an additional book forthcoming to explain some missing backstory. Unfortunately, this book was never published and it is unknown if there are any notes to enable another author to complete Bunch's vision.
* Michel Foucault destroyed most of his unpublished manuscripts before his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1984, and his will prevents anything he missed from being published, most notably the fourth volume of his ''History of Sexuality''.
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** As of late 2010, what is probably the last Stone/Randall novel, a crossover, is out, and while as noted the works were all ongoing series, as a final book, {{spoiler|it ends things well, with the two main characters, who had been struggling with personal issues, making a good effort to find happiness with each other much the way Spenser and Susan had in the Spenser novels.}}
* Jack Chalker set up a huge cliffhanger with Horrors of the Dancing Gods, leaving {{spoiler|his main hero (originally a Barbarian Warrior) now in the form of an immortal (even by immortal standards) wood nymph (oh, and she's pregnant by the Big Bad with who knows what), his son in love with a young girl with male genitalia, the second main character having switched to the evil side of thing...}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131010193523/http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30610 Nothing else] is coming out after [[Harlan Ellison]] dies:
{{quote|
* [[Gordon R. Dickson]] died after completing the 9th of an unknown number of books in his [[Dragon Knight]] series, leaving Jim Eckert's journey from 20th Century grad student to Master Magickian incomplete. The 11th book in his more famous [[Childe Cycle]] series, ''Antagonist'', was completed by his assistant and friend David W. Wixon and published in 2007.
* Pierre Bothero, a French writer of four seperate series that all intertwined, died shortly after writing a book introducing a fourth world, two new societies, and a plentitude of new characters to the mythos, and writing a somewhat cliffhanger ending at the end of this book.
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* Z.A. Recht died with the third book in his ''Morningstar Strain'' trilogy unfinished.
* Andrew Keith, who co-wrote the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] III'' [[Novelization]] and ''[[Wing Commander (novel)|False Colors]]'' with William Forstchen, passed away in 1999 before he and Forstchen could work on a planned sequel to ''False Colors'' that would have bridged the gap between that book's end and the start of ''Wing Commander IV''.
* [[Diana Wynne Jones]] was working on a fourth book in the ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Wizard's Castle]]'' series before her death in 2011. Although series completion is thankfully not an issue with that series (like her ''[[Chrestomanci]]'' series, ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Wizard's Castle]]'' is a series of individual stories connected by a few recurring characters), it was nonetheless a disappointment, as the series had received a recent [[Colbert Bump|popularity boost]] thanks to [[Studio Ghibli]]'s
* ''The Cat Who Smelled Smoke'' was to be the thirtieth volume in the popular ''[[The Cat Who]]...'' mystery series by Lilian Jackson Braun. It was to have been published in 2008, but was put on hold due to the author's failing health. When she passed away in 2011, the book was canceled entirely, and so the series will remain unfinished.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' ''Skeleton Men of Jupiter'', the last story in the ''[[John Carter of Mars]]'' series, was intended as the first in a series of novelettes with ongoing plot, so the story ends with the plot unresolved. The followups never got made, and ERB died a few years after the story's publication.
* Averted at one point by [[Stephen King]], who had finished only four out of seven books in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series when he was struck by a van and sent to the hospital with severe injuries. He later references this, at least indirectly.
*
* [[Anne McCaffrey]] managed to avoid this with the long-running [[Pern]] series by collaborating with her son, Todd, on a few books before turning the franchise over to him entirely. So even though she passed away in November 2011, Pern survives. (YMMV as to whether this is a good thing or not.)
** Their final collaboration has been finished and 'in the can' for quite some time. The publisher is sitting on it for unknown reasons, perhaps to avoid a [[Too Soon]] release that could be construed as capitalizing on her death. There's also the "final" Pern book she worked on for years, with a working/joke title ''After the Fall is Over''. No word on whether or not Todd will finish it.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' writer Robert Holmes died while writing the concluding episodes of 1986's ''The Trial Of A Time Lord'' story. When the series' script editor, Eric Saward, quit
** Of course, misuse of Computer Slang and the last minute reversal of Peri's death aside, most fans are OK with Pip and Jane Baker's ending and agree that Holmes' ending would have been a disaster.
*** Holmes reckoned the BBC had already made the decision, and wanted to give the Doctor an impressive [[Sherlock Holmes|"Reichenbach Falls"]] exit. He was wrong, but only by a couple of years.
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* [[Deadliest Catch|Rest in peace, Captain Phil Harris.]] He had a stroke, ''was put in a medically-induced coma, woke up, wrote to the film crew to keep shooting, and '''then''''' died. In case you couldn't tell, he was something of a [[Badass]]. Phil was also the only member of the show who had previously come closest to dying (he broke a rib, which dislodged a blood clot).
* Steve Irwin, aka the ''[[Crocodile Hunter]]'', was killed in a freak accident with a stingray while filming the documentary ''Ocean's Deadliest'' with Philippe Cousteau Jr. He [[Posthumous Collaboration|was posthumously featured]] in his daughter's show, ''Bindi the Jungle Girl''.
* An in-show example: The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' series of novels by Carver Edlund (aka Chuck Shurley) is actually a written account of the lives of Sam and Dean Winchester, written by a divine prophet. The series ends on the sadistic cliffhanger that is "No Rest for the Wicked," with the publisher claiming Chuck died. He didn't, really, he stopped because Sam and Dean found out about it. "We have guns, and we'll find you." {{spoiler|It's possible that the series through "Swansong" will be published
* ''[[News Radio]]'' continued after the tragic death of Phil Hartman but the show was never the same. It only continued for one season, and only because Phil wouldn't have wanted them to stop.
** Same thing with John Ritter and the sitcom ''8 Simple Rules...'', only it lasted a bit longer.
* ''[[The Sandbaggers]]''' creator Ian Mackintosh died in a mysterious plane crash halfway through the third season. The season was finished with three episodes written by other writers, and the show wasn't continued after that.
* A particularly sad example with ''Chico And The Man'': Freddie Prinze [[Driven to Suicide|killed himself]] towards the end of the third season. They wrote it into the script that Chico was visiting family in Mexico and then later stated that he died, and they tried to [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replace him]] with [[Cousin Oliver|Raul]], but ratings dipped in the final season and it was canceled. [[Tear Jerker|All the more disturbing and sad]] because he killed himself a few ''hours'' after taping his final episode, "Ed Talks to God."
* Similar to the ''Father Ted'' example, narrowly averted by ''[[The Bill]]'' where actor Kevin Lloyd died only a week after being [[Role
* Former ''[[Jackass]]'' cast member Ryan Dunn died in a car accident in June 2011, after [[One-Episode Wonder|just one episode]] of ''Proving Ground'' - a ''[[
* ''Pitchmen,'' a [[Discovery Channel]] show about finding (and shilling) unknown-but-great products and inventions, had as one of its costars [[No Indoor Voice|legendarily loud]] huckster [[Billy Mays]]. After Mays' death, the show floated in limbo for a while, until it was eventually revealed (almost two years later) that his son would start doing the show.
* The 1985 TV series ''Lime Street'', starring Robert Wagner and essentially devised for Samantha Smith after her letter to Yuri Andropov brought her worldwide attention, ended even before it aired - with just eight episodes produced, the 13-year-old and her father were killed in a plane crash not long before the series premiered. Rather than recast her role, the series simply ceased production.
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** Six were released after being polished by Ono in 1984, along with six of Ono's compositions and released as the album ''Milk and Honey''. Four more were given to the surviving Beatles by Ono in early 1994. The other three Beatles and producer [[Electric Light Orchestra|Jeff Lynne]] reworked the demos into new Beatles songs, and "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" were later released as singles and on "Anthology" albums.
** These new songs - which [[Broken Base|rather split the fanbase]] - were parodied by [[Mitch Benn]] in "Please Don't Release This Song" in which John Lennon pleads for his unfinished music ''not'' to be re-recorded and released after his death.
* George Harrison died while working on the album ''Brainwashed''; it was completed by his son Dhani Harrison and former Travelling Wilbury bandmate Jeff Lynne. They made it considerably more lavish than George would have if he had
** On the subject of the Traveling Wilburys, the band averted this by continuing after [[Roy Orbison]] died shortly after their first album's release, but it severely shortened their intended plans, and they released one more album in 1990 before splitting.
** George Harrison was also one of the producers of [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s ''Love''; in the making-of special his wife and son are seen watching the troupe's dress rehersal some months after George died, and it's eerie seeing Dhani (with [[What Beautiful Eyes!|wide, bright eyes]]) looking through a giant projection of his nearly-identical father.
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* [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] left no less than ''four'' unfinished symphonies upon his death, including his 8th, the "Unfinished Symphony". He also left around half a dozen piano sonatas in partially completed states, most of which have been speculatively sketched to completion by some performers but all of which are generally either performed in their incomplete states or simply dropped from the repertoire. Schubert generally sketched pieces to the point where he could easily complete them if he found a publisher for them, but his success rate at finding publishers for his work during his lifetime was rather modest, meaning he left many unfinished manuscripts at his death.
* The day before Brazilian satirical band Mamonas Assassinas were to start an international tour (which would be followed by a break to record their second album), they were killed in a plane crash.
* The Visual Kei symphonic metal band [[Versailles]] had gone major in 2009, and was recording a new album and about to embark on its first tour as a major band when, on August
* [[Michael Jackson]] died in 2009, weeks before the scheduled start of his planned This Is It concerts in London. He had been working on new songs in the last few years of his life as well; some were completed posthumously (with infamous Michael soundalike Jason Malachi reportedly handling vocals on several tracks), bundled together with unused songs from older albums, and released as ''Michael'' in 2010.
* It didn't take [[Led Zeppelin]] long to decide to break up after John Bonham died. [[The Doors]] lingered a little longer...
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** Although Freddie apparently gave Paul Rodgers his blessing to replace him, preventing total Band Existence Failure, it's still not quite the same.
*** Considering Queen+Rodgers only has TWO of the original Queen members in it, it's not much of a surprise they don't live up to the original. Deacon (the bassist) practically retired when Freddie died, only doing two appearances under Queen label since. He officially hung up the bass in 1997.
* John Paul Larkin, aka Scatman John sadly died of lung cancer in his Los Angeles home on December
* There's been speculation that [[Otis Redding]] intended "(Sittin' on) The Dock of The Bay" to be part of a [[The Beatles (band)|''Sgt. Pepper'']]-like concept album, but he was killed in a plane crash 18 days after recording it, and he didn't record anything else before then.
* Buddy Holly [http://www.buddyhollyonline.com/apttapes.html wrote a bunch of new songs]{{Dead link}} in the months leading up to his death (including "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping") and recorded acoustic guitar demos of them. We'll never know how he intended to arrange them, but that didn't stop his label from overdubbing and releasing them on two separate occasions.
* Former La Bouche singer Melanie Thornton died in a plane crash before her solo album could be completed. The vocals from two of her unreleased songs were used in a [[Posthumous Collaboration]] with the rest of the group.
* Keyboardist Dwayne Goettel of [[Skinny Puppy]] died of a heroin overdose while the album ''The Process'' was in the works, and the rest of the group disbanded for several years. Cevin and Ogre reformed the group in 2003 with Mark Walk.
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* Jazz critics usually cite the 1961 live recordings by pianist Bill Evans and his trio at New York's Village Vanguard as Evans' [[Growing the Beard]] moment, but 10 days after those shows were recorded bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car accident. The incident traumatized Evans and worsened his already heavy heroin addiction. Evans himself died in 1980 (of a drug-related bleeding ulcer) just as he was entering a creative renaissance.
** LaFaro is an interesting case because, due to his elevation of the bass' role to counterpoint to instead of solely support to the soloist, he is frequently regarded as being one of the three most influential bassists in jazz. The other two, Jimmy Blanton and Jaco Pastorius, also died at similarly young ages.
* In another case of
* [[George Gershwin]] died after writing five songs for the movie ''The Goldwyn Follies''; when he died, he was intending to compose a ballet for the film's dancing star Vera Zorina to choreography by George Balanchine. After George Gershwin's death, Vernon Duke supplied the additional music necessary for the film.
* Hard rock band Snot was receiving a lot of attention in the late nineties from their major label debut ''Get Some'' and their infamous antics on the 1998 Ozzfest tour. They were working on a second album until singer Lynn Strait was tragically killed in a car accident. Because Lynn died before he recorded vocals for most of the album, the band used the recorded instrumental tracks for the tribute album ''Strait Up'' with guest vocals. The only track that had Lynn's vocals, "Choose What?", was later released as a bonus track on the live album ''Alive''. The band broke up immediately following his death, but a couple of the members started a new revision of the band ten years later called [[Sdrawkcab Name|Tons]].
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* A year after her [[One-Hit Wonder|only top-10 hit]], "Lovin' You", Minnie Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer, and passed away three short years later at age 31. Her daughter, Maya Rudolph, has found success in [[Saturday Night Live]].
* Both [[Hank Williams]] and Patsy Cline died extremely young (29 and 30, respectively), leaving plenty of unreleased material behind and inevitably having several posthumous hits. [[Hank Williams, Jr.]] even overdubbed one of his dad's unreleased songs as a "duet".
* [[E.S. Posthumus]]' Franz Vonlichten died in May
* Kino frontman [[Viktor Tsoi]] died in a car crash in 1990, and the last act of his band was to release the Black Album.
* Rich Mullins died in a car accident in 1997 while working on ''The Jesus Record''. It was released the following year as a double album - one disc of Rich's home demo recordings, the other disc featuring the same songs (plus one extra) given the full band treatment by Mullins' "Ragamuffin Band".
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* The lead singer of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Charles Haddon, [[Driven to Suicide|committed suicide]] just before the release of their first ([[One-Book Author|and likely last]]) album.
* [[TLC]] member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was killed in a car crash in 2002, during the recording of the group's latest album ''3D''. The album was eventually finished by T-Boz and Chilli (they were determined to finish it in Left Eye's honour), in some cases using Left Eye's previously-recorded rap solos.
** There was also a posthumous album of unfinished solo material that was released in 2009 and was finished with contributions from many artists, including [[Missy Elliot]], [[Chamillionaire]] and the remaining members of TLC, T-boz and Chili, as well as Left Eye's sister Reigndrop.
* Mark Linkous, leader/only constant member of cult indie rock band [[Sparklehorse]], had dealt with depression for most of his life and had notably attempted suicide in 1996 while his band was touring as [[Radiohead]]'s opening act. That suicide attempt caused damage to his legs which never quite heeled. Linkous eventually took his own life in 2010, shortly before the wide release of his ''Dark Night of the Soul'' collaboration with Danger Mouse and [[David Lynch]]. Another project, Sparklehorse's fifth album, was left in a near-complete state after his death and has not yet seen the light of day.
* [[The B-52's
* The sudden death of Peter Christopherson in November 2010 put an end to [[Throbbing Gristle]].
* Bradley Nowell, the singer, songwriter and guitarist for [[Sublime]] died a few months before the release of his band's breakout third album. This meant their label had a hit album, no band to send out on tour and no chance for a follow up album. Instead, the surviving two members and Brad's dog Louie starred in a series of music videos released for each of the three singles released for the album. The label proceeded to fulfill the rest of the band's record deal with an continuous (and morbid) series of rarity and greatest hits albums that continue to be released to this day. The two other members went on to a series of other bands of varying success before reforming as Sublime with Rome, which is legally not the same thing as Sublime due to Nowell's estate owning the copyright on the name.
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== Tabletop RPG ==
* [[Gary Gygax]] left many unfinished projects behind for ''[[Dungeons
* Carl Sargent, a popular module writer for TSR, disappeared suddenly in the late '90s, leaving many D&D fans wondering what happened (according to a fellow module writer and friend of his, Sean K. Reynolds, the truth is that he was involved in a car wreck in 1997 and has been unable to write due the severity of his injuries).
* In 1995, Nigel Findley, game designer and novelist who wrote for ''[[Dungeons
* Dream Pod 9, the Publishers of ''[[Heavy Gear]]'' and ''[[Jovian Chronicles]]'' nearly suffered from this; most of the company's artists and writers left in short order, leaving both storylines in the lurch. ''Heavy Gear'' was picked up by Steve Jackson Games in 2008, nothing happened, and in August 2010, SJ Games handed the franchise back to DP9.
* Similarily averted with ''Battletech'' - Twice; when Decipher shut down FASA (who they owned at the time), the Battletech fame franchise was inhereted by Wiz Kids who, in turn, leased them to Fan Pro, a German company who had been publishing localized Battletech material for years, resulting in the game being picked up in short order. Following the shutdown of Wiz Kids, the Battletech rights (as well as most of the writing staff) went to Catalyst Gaming Labs. Most fans feel that the Fanpro-Catalyst years have been some of the best the franchise has ever had. ''Shadowrun'' experienced the same fate moving to the same companies (though fan opinion as to the quality of post-FASA releases is far from a concensus).
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[Kaneto Shiozawa]], the Japanese voice of the [[Pirate Ninja Zombie Robot|Cyborg Ninja]] in the first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', died of a brain concussion [[Death by Falling Over|after falling down a flight of stairs]] on May 10, 2000. As a tribute, his voice recordings from the original ''MGS'' were used for ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' for the second Cyborg Ninja (who was actually another character), as well as in ''[[Super Smash Bros Brawl]]''.
* [[Gunpei Yokoi]], producer of ''[[Metroid]]'' and developer of the [[Game Boy]], the ubiquitous D-Pad, and infamous [[Virtual Boy]], died in a traffic accident while working on Bandai's handheld competitor, the [[Wonder Swan]].
* The [[Legacy of Kain]] series was supposed to have one more game to tie all the lose ends up, however the departure of series writer Amy Hennig for [[Uncharted Drakes Fortune|uncharted]] [[Incredibly Lame Pun|waters]] and the death of [[Tony Jay]], one of the major voice actors, means that the series is now in limbo.
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* In a non-death example, with the sacking of [[Keiji Inafune]] from [[Capcom]], the ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'' series is, for all intents and purposes, finished. Guess Roll and Tron never were able to finish that rocket. Doesn't make the fans [[Internet Backlash|any less pissed]], though.
* Downplayed in the case of ''Merlin's Revenge'', where the creator was forced to permanently abandon the series due to medical problems, explaining the whole situation in a seriously [[Tear Jerker]] speech.
* A sequel to PS1 shooter ''[[Blasto]]'' was considered after development finished but dropped after the death of Blasto's actor Phil Hartman (it was his final work). As Hartman's ad-libbed dialog was considered the soul of the project, both by staff and reviewers, it was deemed impossible to continue.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Joe D'Angelo, creator of webcomic ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120215212050/http://piratecove.jb.org/Archives.html Pirate's Cove]'', decided to avert this trope and created an "[http://piratecovecomic.blogspot.com/2007/08/august-16th-2007-death-of-pirate-cove.html ending]" that would be revealed if he died prematurely.
* Similar to the above, the writer of [[Looking for Group]] and [[Least I Could Do]] has mentioned keeping a special script which should resolve things, and his notes on future plots, in a safe in the event that he passes away before his comics finish. Either the artist has the combination, or one of their wives do.
* Paul Gadzikowski of ''Arthur, King of Time and Space'' is another example - his plan involves synthesising the many Arthurian legends into an overarching story to be told in "real time" over the twenty-five years of Arthur's reign (although he has jumped forward by a couple of years and has hinted that he will probably do so again). He has stated on several occasions that he has kept detailed notes about the rest of the story in case he passes away before the comic is due to finish in the mid to late 2020s.
* Every so often, Megatokyo's Fred Gallagher will poke fun at his sometimes-glacial update pace, and [http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/874 on one occasion] kinda hinted at this trope.
* Scott Kuehner passed away in January
* [http://captainn.net/main.html N-Fans: The Series] began to flounder in 2007, when creator Webster Swenson passed away unexpectedly. The people who inspired the other characters made a few attempts to revive the series and keep it going in his memory, but the entire website has stagnated since early 2008.
* Angel "Inqy" Yates of [[Wicked Alchemy]] wrote on her [[
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130601070804/http://www.wolfiespack.com/wordpress
* Tom Siddell, of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', joked that due to his strip buffer, if he were to keel over and die this instant, we'd still get about three months worth of strips.
* The creator of Just Another Webcomic passed away after coming out of a coma. He was only 9 pages into the third volume of his work, which he was unable to continue after the coma because he had lost a lot of sensation in his drawing arm.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Spoofed in ''[[PRIMARCHS]]'', where the {{
* SuperPie suffered a (fortunately non-lethal) version of this in Game 11 of [[Comic Fury Werewolf]].
* ''[[The Gungan Council]]'' has had two confirmed deaths of writers: Skelosh Delaroch and Raven Darkness.
* ''[[Eddsworld]]'' creator Edd Gould died after a long fight with cancer in March
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* Kathleen Freeman, the voice of Ms. Gordon in ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'', died before she finished her role in the episode "No Hope for Courtney." As a result, the character she played passed away instead of getting out of retirement. The whole episode was dedicated to the voice actor.
* Mary Kay Bergman, who originally voiced most of the female characters on ''[[South Park]]'' (including Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Broflovski, Mrs. McCormack, Mrs. Cartman, Wendy, etc.) had suffered from depression for years and committed suicide just after finishing recording her parts for the show's third season. "Starvin Marvin In Space" and "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" were dedicated to her memory.
* Tony Jay was the voice of Megabyte, ''[[
** Long John Baldry was the voice of guest star Captain Gavin Capacitor, and he died as well.
* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' features Slinky Dog, formerly voiced by Jim "Ernest" Varney, who died in 2000. Varney's friend Blake Clark supplied Slinky's voice for the third film.
** Also, Wheezy the penguin doesn't feature in the film: both his speaking (Joe Ranft) and singing (Robert Goulet) voices had died by the time the film was made.
* Lyricist Howard Ashman died in the middle of the production of ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', leaving Tim Rice to supply lyrics to "One Jump" and "A Whole New World." Tim Rice was called on for the [[Screen to Stage Adaptation]] of ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' for the same reason.
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** [http://www.planetmule.com/ Enter Planet M.U.L.E..]
* ''Robotech: Crystal Dreams'' became [[Vaporware]] due to the folding of Gametek.
* A planned sequel to ''[[Twisted Metal]] Black'' called ''Harbor City'' was scrapped, but four completed levels were included in ''[[Twisted Metal]] Head On: Extra Twisted Edition'' along with a documentary claiming that ''Harbor City'' was canceled because six of the developers died in a plane crash. However, this was [[Based on a Great Big Lie]]; the "documentary" was part of an [[Alternate Reality Game]] hinting at the development of a [[
* Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War breaks off abruptly partway through the eighth book. Fortunately Xenophon picked up where Thucydides left off, so we know how the war ended. Athens lost.
* WWE superstar Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand appeared with his partner Joe "Animal" Laurinatis on the May 17, 2003 ''WWE RAW'' and despite his history of severe drug and alcohol abuse, performed exceptionally well, as he had finally gotten completely clean. According to those who knew him, Hegstrand had dedicated himself to staying drug-free for the rest of his life; unfortunately, his years of drug abuse had taken such a physical toll on his body that he died of a heart attack six months later.
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==
* Weremonkey Gus, one of the [
* Danny Lilithborne, aka Dasrik, JuJube The Tree, blankpage, and Ricardo Arturo Lafaurie, Jr., [https://web.archive.org/web/20100525172048/http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=220982 passed away January 2nd, 2010] after several weeks in a persistent vegetative state. In his last days, he was continuing work on his highly regarded ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' fanfic "[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1519987/JuJube_the_Tree Negative Zero]", as well as a series of novels called [http://www.succubus.net/wiki/Chateau_Aensland_(saga) Chateau Aensland]. Rest in Peace.
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