Charlie Sheen and Other Celebrities Who Were Just 'Dying' to Leave Their Television Shows

According to ABC, there may be "101 Ways to Leave a Game Show," but there are also plenty of ways for a television character to bite the dust. After production resumed on "Two and a Half Men" this summer, rumors circulated that Charlie Harper, the character played by Charlie Sheen, will die after being pushed in front of a Paris subway train.

According to Sheen's former co-star Jon Cryer, Harper's death is actually quite funny. Sheen's sitcom death also grants him a plot in the television graveyard with other characters that have left their respective shows in memorable ways.

Take, for example, the death of beloved children's entertainer Chuckles the Clown on a classic episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Dressed as Peter Peanut, Chuckles died after a hungry elephant shucked the poor clown. Mary Richards, Moore's character, is unable to laugh about the absurdity of his death until the funeral.

Wonderful character actress Diana Muldaur played the deliciously nasty Rosalind Shays during a season of "L.A. Law." Generally hated by her co-workers, Shays made an inglorious exit by walking through open elevator doors into empty space, plunging to a grisly death. Some fans thought that Muldaur really got the shaft with that exit.

As Sheen's exit shows, disputes with producers also can get characters sent to the graveyard prematurely.

Maude Flanders, wife of the overly-chipper Ned Flanders, dies in one classic "Simpsons" episode after a t-shirt cannon knocks her from the top row at an auto race. According to reports, Maggie Roswell, the voice actress behind Maude, left the show because 20^th Century Fox refused to give her a raise.

Valerie Harper, star of her own self-titled series, had her character, Valerie Hogan, die in a car accident. Behind the scenes, Harper was in a salary dispute with Lorimar Productions, which led to Hogan's untimely death. The series was renamed "Valerie's Family" and later "The Hogan Family" and Harper went on to sue Lorimar.

Other shows have killed off characters that refuse to stay dead. A classic example is Bobby Ewing from "Dallas." Actor Patrick Duffy left the series in 1985 and Bobby Ewing apparently met his final fate under the wheels of a car. Ewing returned the next season, leading to the infamous "It was all a dream" shower sequence.

Does that mean if Sheen and producer Chuck Lorre ever patch things up, Charlie Harper could show up in his brother's shower someday?

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