People die. Characters die. This is perhaps life’s most unfortunate fact: that people will die and leave the rest of us behind. It’s incredibly rare that any dramatic television series lasting over three seasons will never kill a main or recurring character, and all those deaths have driven a stake through the heart of fandom: Joyce on Buffy, Lady Sybil on Downton Abby, Charlie on Lost, Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, Jen on Dawson’s Creek, Nate on Six Feet Under — but when the person who dies is a lesbian or bisexual character, queer fandom takes it pretty hard.
The history of lesbian representation on television is rocky — in the beginning, we seemed exclusively relegated to roles that saw us getting killed/attacked or doing the killing/attacking. And until the last five or so years, lesbian and bisexual characters seemed entirely unable to date an actual woman or stay alive for more than three episodes, let alone an entire run, of a show. Gay and lesbian characters are so often murdered on television that we have our very own trope: Bury Your Gays. We comprise such a teeny-tiny fraction of characters on television to begin with that killing us off so haphazardly feels especially cruel.
Not every death listed below was wholly uncalled for. In many genres, like soap operas and shows about vampires, zombies, criminals, or games of thrones, characters are killed on the reg. That’s a different trope — Anyone Can Die. Furthermore, shows composed entirely of queer characters will inevitably kill one. But regardless, they still add to the body count weighing down our history of misrepresentation.
And, due to the recent untimely death of Lexa on The 100, this week seemed like a good one to count down everybody we have lost over the years.
This list contains every television death of an OPENLY lesbian or bisexual or queer female character on a television show. With a handful of exceptions, these are all characters who appeared for more than one episode. The exceptions were deemed exceptional because something about the characterization still fits in with the Bury Your Gays trope. Victims-of-the-week from crime procedurals (Law & Order, Cold Case, CSI, Criminal Minds or older shows) or patients-of-the-week from hospital dramas (Chicago Hope, E.R.), aren’t on this list, as that is an entirely different kind of list, but recurring characters from those shows are on this list. Nor is subtext on this list, because we’re not gonna give Xena showrunners Queer Character Credit for a character they refused to make openly queer when she was really so obviously queer. You know? [ETA: Okay, I’ve added Xena after doing further research and because if one more commenter takes up space on this thread — a thread I’m using to find more characters to add, and also to engage with thoughtful/funny readers who have opinions and feelings — to tell me that I “forgot” Xena without reading this introduction, I will become the 200th dead lesbian and the cause of death will be “Walked off a cliff with a commenter in her arms. Murder-suicide.” But Xena will be the one and only inclusion based on subtext.] Also, although I’ve done tons of research, I haven’t personally seen all of these shows, so mistakes may very well exist, and feel free to politely inform me of them in the comments, or tell me about characters I may have missed — it’s especially helpful if you can tell me the cause of death and the year.
Unsure if this needs to be said but… SPOILER ALERT.
Special thanks to the LezWatchTV Database for providing info on shows I haven’t seen or heard about directly!
Every Regular or Recurring Lesbian or Bisexual Female Character Killed On Television
Julie, Executive Suite (1976)
Cause of death: Hit by a car. Her love interest had just walked into traffic after realizing her lesbianism and Julie was chasing her.
Franky Doyle, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)
Cause of death: Shot by a police officer after escaping from prison
Sharon Gilmour, Prisoner: Cell Block H (1980)
Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by a corrections officer
Karen O’Malley, Casualty (1987)
Cause of death: Head Injury
Cecília, Vale Tudo (1988)
Cause of death: Car Accident
Cicely, Northern Exposure (1992)
Cause of death: Shot by a gunman employed by the town’s evil overlord who doesn’t want to let the lesbians change his town. The shot was intended for her girlfriend Roslyn, but Cicely, who was already sick, blocked the bullet and died in Roslyn’s arms, thus magically healing the town’s long-simmering feuds and leading them to re-name the town “Cicely.”
Talia Winters, Babylon 5 (1995)
Cause of death: Activated a sleeper personality that wiped out her actual personality, effectively killing her
Beth Jordache, Brookside (1995)
Cause of death: Genetic heart condition, died in prison
Susan Ross, Seinfeld (1996)
Cause of death: Toxic envelope glue
Naomi “Tracy” Richards, Band of Gold (1996)
Cause of death: Stabbed herself
Lucy, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996)
Cause of death: Caught thieving and hanged
Kathy, NYPD Blue (1997)
Cause of death: Shot by a hit man hired by her girlfriend Abby’s ex, who wanted to get rid of Kathy so she could get back together with Abby. Abby was pregnant at the time.
Sondra Westwood, Pacific Drive (1997)
Cause of death: Murdered by a serial killer
Jadzia Dax, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998)
Cause of death: Blasted by an alien-possessed alien
Sonia Besirky, Lindenstraße (1998)
Cause of death: Drug overdose from medication given to her by her ex-lover’s husband
Leila and Rafaela, Torre de Babel (1998)
Cause of death: Explosion in a shopping mall
Susanne Teubner, Hinter Gittern (1999)
Cause of death: Shot during a bank robbery (she was a customer)
Shaz Wiley, Bad Girls (2000)
Cause of death: Bomb, died in resulting fire
Laura Hall, Shortland Street (2000)
Cause of death: Heart attack
Diamond, Dark Angel (2001)
Cause of death: Used as a lab rat for research that killed her
Xena, Xena the Warrior Princess (2001)
Cause of death: Beheaded
Beate “Bea” Hansen, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of death: Injuries from an explosion
Jule Neumann, Hinter Gittern (2001)
Cause of death: Suicide
Frankie Stone, All My Children (2001)
Cause of death: Murder Mystery!
Bridgit, 24 (2001)
Cause of death: Shot by a man in front of her girlfriend
Tara Maclay, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002)
Cause of death: Shot in the heart by a stray bullet
Kelly Hurst, Family Affairs (2002)
Cause of death: Pushed down the stairs by her lover’s husband
Megan Hartnoll, At Home With The Braithwaites (2003)
Cause of death: Electrocuted in the bathtub
Juliet Becker, The Bill (2003)
Cause of death: Stabbed
Tina Greer, Smallville (2003)
Cause of death: Impaled through the chest on a large piece of wood during a fight with a male character
Sandy Lopez, E.R. (2004)
Cause of death: Injuries sustained from fighting a fire in an abandoned warehouse
Al Mackenzie, Bad Girls (2004)
Cause of death: Poisoned
Hanna Novak, Verbotene Liebe (2004)
Cause of death: Stroke, died in her girlfriend’s arms
Ines Führbringer, Hinter Gittern (2004)
Cause of death: Throat slit, died in girlfriend’s arms
Thelma Bates, Hex (2004)
Cause of death: Murdered by a demon
Flora, Deadwood (2004)
Cause of death: Beaten by a man who then forced a woman to shoot her with his gun
Brenda Castillo, Charmed (2004)
Cause of death: Stabbed with a cursed blade by a man, causing her to rapidly age and then die
Tosha, The Wire (2004)
Cause of death: Shot during a heist gone wrong
Marissa Cooper, The O.C. (2005)
Cause of death: Car crash after being driven off the road by her drunk ex-boyfriend
Servilla, Rome (2005)
Cause of death: Stabs herself in front of her rival house, inhabited by the mother of her lover
Dusty, Queer As Folk (2005)
Cause of death: At a benefit at a gay club when a bomb went off
Dana Fairbanks, The L Word (2006)
Cause of death: Breast cancer
Helena Cain, Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Cause of death: Shot by her ex-lady-lover
Manuela Wellmann, Hinter Gittern (2006)
Cause of death: Stabbed, died in girlfriend’s arms
Maya Robertson, Hex (2006)
Cause of death: Hit by a car
Natalie, Bad Girls (2006)
Cause of death: Bludgeoned to death with a brick
Gina Inviere/#6, Battlestar Galactica (2006)
Cause of death: Set off a nuclear weapon
Eve Jacobson/Zoe McAllister, Home & Away (2006)
Cause of death: Inside a building when it was blown up
Van, Dante’s Cove (2006)
Cause of Death: Killed by the Shadows
Angie Morton, Stritctly Confidential (2006)
Cause of death: Suicide. Jumped off a building.
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Can you believe none of the seven queer women on Wentworth have died yet? It probably won’t be long…
I know, I was like, one of them must be dead… but everybody who has died so far is straight! If only they’d left Ferguson behind in the burning building…
The fact that every time I come back to this article there seems to be more names is indicative of either A) we are so very aware of when we have representation that we will fight for inclusion of people we saw ourselves in or B) TV really, really hates us.
Actually, it’s probably both.
Thanks to this list, I finally figured out who Olivia Wilde as 13 reminds me so much of: it’s Mischa Barton’s Marissa Cooper on The OC.
Fer from Física o Química (Spanish TV) died too. Another gay love story that ended up in tragedy.
This is about female characters…
But I do agree that was unnecessary and terrible, like it completely ruined the story.
At least Spain has Bea & Ana as lesbians who lived happily ever after.
“Emily, Teen Wolf (2013)” was inaccurate inre cause of death. She was kidnapped by a swarm of cockroaches, tied to a tree, bludgeoned over the head, strangled, then her throat was slit (ancient druidic “triple death”) as the FIRST virgin sacrifice of an evil druidess who was attempting, through ritual sacrifices, to amass sufficient power to get her revenge against the evil uber-Alpha Werewolf who had massacred her friends and horribly disfigured her.
(The ONLY way to tell that was as a run-on sentence. LULZ.)
ok FTR this is now the fourth correction i have gotten about this particular death — and all of them have been different and different from the wiki! also orignally i was told she was the first virgin death, then the third, so i changed it from first to third, and then the second, and so i changed it to the second… now you’re saying it’s the first!
i’m gonna go with you b/c your answer was the most in-depth but if somebody tells me she was the 15th virgin death i am sending them to you
This whole issue has been super funny, actually.
That said, “Teen Wolf Clue” is a board game that just really needs to happen.
Missing from the list!
Paulie Oster in Lost and Delirious (2001) – suicide by jumping off a roof (I know it’s been said)
Also, regarding subtext: Would you be willing to include Ruth Jamison from Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)? She died of cancer. She and Idgie, the other protagonist, very obviously loved each other and stated it a few times,although there was never an explicit relationship or physical commemoration.
ON TV. So no.
OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS I AM GOING TO SET UP A COMMENT FILTER AND ANYBODY WHO SUBMITS A COMMENT WITH THE WORDS “LOST AND DELIRIOUS” IN IT AUTOMATICALLY GETS SENT TO THE SPAM FOLDER
also honestly the weirdest thing about this continuing to happen is that for real, if you honestly thought this was a list of lesbian MOVIES… that’s the only one you can come up with? there are so many others that are more important that would come to mind
Surely it’s trolling at this point.
well i set up the filter regardless
i feel setting up the filter qualifies as self-care
I think only TV characters are included here. There are a tonne of Movies in addition to all of this!
Alex Vause was also (supposedly) killed at the end of the last series
no… she’s gonna be in the next season so she somehow made it out of that greenhouse alive
Darla, 2001 from the Angel series, staked herself to save her unborn child, she and Dru were probably my first ever ‘ship’ though I ended up watching Angel prior to Buffy.
that would be one of those subtext ones. never on the show are they a couple, unless i seriously missed something during one of my 20 rewatch marathons.
Unfortunately Darla and Dru were only ever subtext. So they don’t count.
I frequently wonder how I’ve survived as long as I have and I think this is why. I have to wonder if straight folks marvel at making it to the age of 32 like I do…
What about River Song from Doctor Who? She did die before it was revealed she was bi/pan, but the show is made in such way that it can bring the characters back. Jut take Clara for once, whom the doctor didn’t want to let go. Same could be done for River but it won’t be, am I not right?
it sounds like she wasn’t killed OFF though, you know? being dead had no impact on her participation in the show and continuation as part of the story. coupled with the fact that her bisexuality is only KIND OF mentioned and only once, I don’t think she would make the list.
Clara, though. Unless I misunderstand the line here, she’s “dead enough”. Not coming back. Removed-from-time utter Moffat bullshit or not.
“her bisexuality is only KIND OF mentioned and only once” – this bothers me a lot.
If a character never had any relationships with men, and then she mentioned her “second wife”, would she be counted as a lesbian for the purposes of this list?
It seems to me that when that happens, people get very excited at finding out a show they love has a Canon Lesbian.
But when it’s a bi woman, it seems like the burden of proof in both the straight and gay communities is a lot higher.
I won’t go into what the impact of this on the bi community is – unless you want the lengthy details – but it’s real bad.
Please add Clara to the list, and anybody else who is talking onscreen about their flirting/kissing/relationships with more than one gender?
Lily Baker, Supernatural (2007); hung to death
It’s almost like step 1 of killing off a character is having them come out.
Man, Lucy Lawless just can’t catch a break huh?
Besides that, this whole thing was hard to read.
I know. Every time she plays lesbian they kill her. ?
Its Tamsin, not Tasmin, just fyi. Thanks for this list!
Whether it is a gay man being described as fruity, a trans woman being described as a man with female features, or just a plain lesbian you plan on killing anyway its demeaning. In the straight heterosexual world of writers it seems its more acceptable to deny all these groups a place at the table as a normal person in a show. Its acceptable to make these people stand out by using the prejudice they male writers have against them then to let them have parts that are more natural to us all. It doesn’t matter if we are straight or gay we are people with personalities and feelings. If a show has a character that is jewish and he is portrayed as rude and cheap you would be offended. But kill off a lesbian and no one cares. Its time we stand up together and tell hollywood to stop the sexist homophobic attitude. Its wrong and its demeaning. Plus its really lazy writing.
Huge pattern of straight men murdering lesbian and bi women.
Just one more thing, if this is in chronological order shouldn’t Lexa be the last on the list? Because she died a week after Rose did.
no it’s just roughly in order by year, within the year itself there is no chronological organization. although actually putting her at the end would be a dramatic way to end the list with a punch so i think i am going to do that
Deputy Jenna and Charlie Bradbury from Supernatural were recently killed off too. Jenna ended up soulless and was killed by a demon and Charlie was stabbed by a neo-nazi
charlie’s been on the list since the article was originally posted
And someone helpfully elaborated on the tastelesness of her murder as well.
Upgrades her to a fridging. :(
Heya the photo for Laura Hall (not Hill) from Shortland Street (2000) is the wrong character – that’s Toni. Laura was portrayed by Larissa Matheson – here’s a pic
http://nzlads.tripod.com/images/Laura.JPG
thanks!
Hounded and pressured by Xenites, sounds about right for that particular fandom.
I did no hounding of Riese, but I totally get what you mean.
We’re fucking persistent.
Nurse Delia Bubsy from call the midwife doesn’t die, but suffers severe brain damage and no longer remembers anything/her lover Patsy.
Good news on this one!!! I think in part a reaction to the outcry to this, Delia gets her memory back and ends up moving into Nonatus house. They are currently living happily sneaking in and out of each other’s rooms(including Patsy in nothing but a flannel shirt…) and going to gay bars.
Hmm. I’m not sure it was right to include spoilers (as in total description) here in comments. It is better to let the reveal unfold for those who wait.
Yeah, it’s been an entire season since that happened. It Gets Better ™. The new season starts airing in the States next month.
please watch the next season…
Woah a lot of characters from shows i stopped watching died?? Xena’s dead?? What rock was I living under.
Ok but I don’t know why people think Delphine is actually dead. I’m definitely not opposing her inclusion in this list since they’re trying to sell her off as dead for the sake of drama (cheap so cheap) but it’s pretty obvious she’s not dead.
I had the same reaction to Claire Bennet in Heroes Reborn. Then again I didn’t even know she wasn’t straight…
Wait, Luce (from Les Revenants) is not confirmed dead. She just got taken away by the fog, but she’ll be back! Right? Right?!
The actress is pregnant so she’s been written out from what I’ve read.
Luce (Laure in France) is dead in season 2. But if I remember correctly they introduce a new lesbian character too.
Lucy Lawless characters keep going. D’Anna Biers (Cyclon#3)… seen in bet with CapricaSix and Giaus. Commits suicide by choosing to stay alone to die on the nuked planet Earth.
Another dead bi Lucy Lawless Character: Countess Von Marburg on Salem. http://salem.wikia.com/wiki/Countess_Von_Marburg
Lucy Lawless again, as D’Anna Biers (#3) on Battlestar Galactica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Three_%28Battlestar_Galactica%29
added!
Thank you for putting together this list, Riese! It would mean a lot more work, but would you consider collating a sister article to this one, with a list of the live-action female-female relationships in TV’s history that were given a happy ending? It would be a great counterpoint. Either way, thanks for this post.
yeah sure!
I’m 99.9% sure that nobody will mention THAT movie on that list. So, an almost win-win situation…
“WHAT ABOUT IMAGINE ME AND YOU”
Yes! I’d love this! Then we get a view of the % of dead lesbians because I imagine a hetero viewing the list and thinking that only 132? not realising that this makes up the majority of lesbian characters on TV. This is list is a start: http://100percentshipper.tumblr.com/post/140930063826/queer-female-ship-reference-list
I feel like mentioning Kilgrave’s role in the Jessica Jones death would be relevant, since she only died because of a man’s actions.
Only?
I dunno about that, after all without Jerri he never would have come in contact with Wendy. He was kinda like the bullet so to speak, but a gun don’t fire without a firing pin and ammo does not load it self.
I am attempting to be vague and analogy-like because I’m unsure as to the Rules of Spoilers for a stream only show.
Only, because it was an accident. Only, because while Jerri held ill will, she never intended to kill her wife. Only, because Pam was only trying to defend Jer.
Don’t get me wrong, Jerri screwed up, but Wendy’s death happened because Kilgrave is an empathy devoid monster.
I think this list could benefit from being revised to include straight trans women. Everyone on this list so far is cis to my knowledge, and there are plenty of trans woman characters I can think of who deserved better (Angelique in Penny Dreadful as just one example). Maybe instead of “Lesbian and bisexual women”, just “queer women”.
We made the intentional choice to have this list focus on sexual orientation, not gender identity. The way and the motivation behind killing transgender women and people on television is a different type of trope, as it’s based in transphobia/trans misogyny, not homophobia, and therefore not a “Bury Your Gays” situation. it would do a disservice to the impact of both to combine them. but i am working on a larger piece about the history of trans representation on television so you can look forward to that! We would include any trans women who were lesbians or bisexual and have been killed, though. Also not all trans women consider themselves “queer” simply for being trans.
I’d love to see the (unfortunately much shorter) happy endings list too, but there’s another complementary list: the PsychoLesbian/DepravedBisexual list (to borrow TVTropes’ terms) for all the queer women portrayed as murderers, psychopaths, or murderous psychopaths. Bonus points for the shows where their evil was portrayed as somehow tied to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or both. The fact that I can come up with like 10 examples for it off the top of my head makes me almost as sad as this list.
I saw a list on tumblr that had two whole items on it: britanna and bo/lauren. korrasami is another that was animation,not live action.
yeah actually most early representations of lesbians on television fell into that trope. literally it was 100% for the first several years of lesbian characters appearing on television. I got into the first ten times here, but would love to do a longer list later:
http://www.autostraddle.com/10-first-ever-lesbian-characters-on-american-tv-killers-tramps-thieves-and-therapists-316645/
Amy Tyler — Sons of Anarchy (2010) She was killed by her Lesbian g/f, the FBI agent June Stahl.
thank you!
The interesting thing about All My Children’s use of this Bury Your Gays trope is that Marissa was killed by a man specifically because she loved a woman. JR was furious that Marissa was in love with Bianca and not him, that their son was afraid of him and he’d lost custody, and Marissa and Bianca were moving into a house to raise him together. He blamed Marissa and Bianca for all his problems and not the fact that he was a possessive alcoholic. He even went so far as to try to blackmail them by trying to catch them on film having sex and was going to claim Marissa was an unfit mother because of her relationship with a woman. Her murder seemed to be a desperate last resort after he had lost everything.
It pissed me off that the reboot let him get away with it by basically implying he was “fixed” after taking a bullet to the head and surviving after years in a coma. The writers would have you believe that was supposed to be sufficient punishment for him. The reboot was honestly a shit show that never should have happened. If it didn’t we could have all gone on to believe that Marissa and Bianca had a happy ending as the original show ended on a cliffhanger and you didn’t know who was killed that night.
No dead lesbians/bisexuals on Capadocia? For a women’s prison TV show that was weird.
Wendy Hogarth wasn’t hit by a woman being psychologically controlled, WENDY was the one being psychologically controlled and was struck by another woman trying to defend Jeri Hogarth, Carrie-Ann Moss’ character.
And to round it up, all three victim, dead woman and murderer were lesbians.
Wendy and Pam were victims, Jeri played with fire for her own gain and got burned.