Sean Bean's best death scenes

Death becomes him...

Sean Bean is one the UK's most recognisable actors. Throughout his career he's played romantic heroes, sneering villains, jewel thieves, and even a Bond baddy. Even so, he's still most famous for one thing: he dies. A lot.

15. Death Race 2 (2011)

The film:Bean plays crime boss Markus Kane (now there's a B-movie villain name if ever we heard one, its all about the hard ks), the rotter who puts a price on the head of driver Frankenstein (Luke Goss). Not a vintage movie, to put it lightly, but Bean brings a touch of class to the bone-headed guns n gears action.

14. Lorna Doone (1990)

The show: Bean rocking flowing locks that make him look like a faded '80s pop star or Pat Sharpe plays the wicked Carver Doone in this TV movie based on Richard Doddridge's famous novel. Carver plans to force Lorna into marrying him, but he meets a watery end instead...

13. Ca$h (2010)

The film: Chris Hemsworth's Sam Phelan finds a suitcase full of cash, but wishes he hadn't when the hysterically-named Pyke Kubic (our Mr Bean, natch) comes after him. Alas, the Phelans have spent some of the dough already and are forced into doing criminal deeds for Kubic to pay off their debt.

12. The Hitcher (2007)

The show: Remember '80s classic The Hitcher, which starred the mighty Rutger Hauer? It was brilliant and brutal. This remake... isn't. Still, it does afford our man another meaty villain to add to his rogue's gallery. John Ryder (Ryder and he's a hitchhiker. Hahaha. Ha...) is a thoroughly nasty sort, but he gets his comeuppance at the end.

11. The Island (2005)

The film: Cinemas prime exponent of crashes, bangs and Shia LeBeouf, Michael Bay, helmed this middling clone drama. Bean plays a morally dubious scientist (is there any other kind in the movies?) who sets out to destroy his creations when they discover the truth about their creation. Its duff, but infinitely better than any of the Transformers flicks.

10. Equilibrium (2002)

The film: This dystopian sci-fi about a grey future where emotion is outlawed was a well-intentioned flop. Still, it gave Bean a break from the bad guy roles and another scene for his death reel. In it he plays Cleric Errol Partridge effectively a member of the futuristic police who steals an outlawed book of Yates' poetry and begins to experience those forbidden feels.

9. Red Riding: 1974 (2009)

The film: British TV doesn't get much-better than this ultra-dark and ultra-brilliant adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding novels. Adapted as a trilogy of films, Bean appears in the first instalment as John Dawson a corrupt real estate developer who is implicated in a nasty murder in Yorkshire.

8. The Field (1990)

The film: This little-seen Irish drama finds a pre-Sharpe, pre-fame Bean playing Tadhg McCabe, the son of a farmer who stands to inherit a field, but gets caught up in all manner of low-key trauma until he meets a final, slightly surreal end...

7. Dont Say A Word (2001)

The film: This slightly plodding thriller finds Sean playing jewel thief Patrick, who comes after Michael Douglas's Dr Conrad and kidnaps his daughter as part of a convoluted scheme to retrieve an expensive gem.

6. Henry VIII (2003)

The show: Bean likes his historical dramas. In this flashy two-part TV series, he plays Robert Aske the real life lawyer, turned leader of the rebellion in Yorkshire, who met a horrific end at the hands of the king. He does at least go down fighting before his eventual, horrible, demise.

5. Patriot Games (1992)

The film: This early '90s spy flick was arguably the role that made Bean a movie star. Playing the villainous, if mundanely-named Sean Miller, he takes on Harrison Ford's CIA agent Jack Ryan in a climactic (and comically overblown) speedboat battle to the death.

4. Black Death (2010)

The film: One of the grizzlier entries on this list comes from this obscure, but actually really rather good, medieval horror. Bean plays a knight, Ulric, who is leading a mission to find a village that has somehow escaped the touch of the Black Death. There are rumours that a necromancer may be involved, but the truth is far more sinister...

3. Goldeneye (1995)

The film:Does this count as two deaths? Pierce Brosnan's first and best James Bond adventure introduces Bean as Alec Trevelyan AKA 006 a compatriot of Bond who is caught and shot by a Russian soldier in the film's opening sequence. However shock! it's all a ruse. Trevelyan faked his death and, nine years later, he is back and running the Janus crime syndicate.

2. Game Of Thrones (2011)

The show: For many this was the moment that Game Of Thrones became more than just another fantasy show. Bean plays Lord Eddard Ned Stark, one of Westeros' few good men and someone that (non-book readers) assumed would carry on throughout the full series. Nope!

1. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)

The film: Likely the actor's single most famous scene, and his own personal favourite death. Bean plays the noble-but-flawed warrior Boromir who is overwhelmed by the dark power of the One Ring. He chases after ring-bearer Frodo, but returns to lucidity just in time to save him from a horde of Orcs. However, he pays the ultimate price...