STUMP » Articles » Updating Sean Bean's Mortality Rate » 1 April 2022, 17:34

I figure Sean Bean’s mortality rate could use a refresh.

Yes, I said I would do an update of the 2021 all-cause mortality, but it got me depressed (it’s worse than 2020, in case you were wondering), so I decided – hey, it’s April Fool’s Day, let’s do a silly mortality post.

So let’s update Sean Bean’s mortality rate.

The last time I looked in on Sean Bean’s mortality was actually March 2017, so we’ve had 5 additional years to check on him.

Let me update the spreadsheets!

The data are in: his survivorship is improving!

So, as of December 2016, we had this stat:

Sean Bean has died 24 times across 70 films and TV series – around 35 per cent of all his roles

[Well, it’s 26 now, but okay]

Okay, let’s check his imdb entry and see if it’s gotten better since then!.

The answer is yes, and for a reason that should be very familiar to actuaries: he’s in run-off. The last role with an on-screen death I can find is 2015. (I use all IMDB credits, yes, even video games.)

There was one movie in 2017 where the character is dead, but you see him in flashback. You never see the character die. I decided it doesn’t count. It only counts if you see Sean Bean die, I have decided.

Give me the graphs!

So this is what his graph looks like now:

You see that the last “local maximum” was 2011, and it’s been “decaying” ever since — the sign of the run-off.

Interestingly, it matches an earlier local maximum in 1992. Checking the spreadsheet, he had had 7 cumulative deaths at that point, and 19 total roles. Maybe he thought he’d never reach that high point again, but he sure clawed his way back there.

Here’s the stacked column graph showing the roles by dying/not dying split out:

Dying is a young man’s game

Now, you could get bitchy about me counting the TV roles the same way I’m counting movie roles… should I count it by screen time? Episodes?

And look:

this is a silly post. I don’t have time for this crap. I am just going by role and whether or not he died. I’m not spending too much time researching which roles he died in, either. Lots of other people made compilation lists, which definitely shortened my data gathering time.

Also: Actor Sean Bean Has Died 23 Times on Screen, Announces He Won’t Be Doing That Anymore — looks like he’s going to be in run-off for awhile.

To quote the piece (from 2019):

Bean recently announced that he’ll now reject roles in which his character meets his demise. “I’ve played a lot of baddies,” he recalled, “they were great but they weren’t very fulfilling—and I always died.”

Fair enough.

He’s now 62 years old and perhaps real mortality is getting a bit too real. That interview was before the pandemic.

Most of his on-screen deaths are very violent, as he got to play loads of villains in action films and the like. Then he got to play the good guys…. who were patsies in action/fantasy films and they died violently, too.

Now he’s in the age range where violent death isn’t too likely, but natural death is growing exponential in its likelihood, and dammit, I said I wouldn’t be talking about the 2021 mortality results.

Anyway, here is a gif of Sean Bean:

via GIPHY

He’s not dying in that gif. He did die in that movie, though.