For many Game of Thrones fans, the death of protagonist Eddard 'Ned' Stark is probably just as shocking today as it was when they first witnessed it in the penultimate episode of the first season of the show. The bombshell exit of the character marked yet another screen death for actor Sean Bean, who has somewhat developed a notoriety for taking on roles that always end mortally.

The British actor is on record as having his characters killed off in about 25 films and TV shows that he has featured in. The very first time a Bean character was killed on screen was in his 1986 cameo as Ranuccio in the period drama, Caravaggio by Derek Jarman. He has also been written off through death in, among others, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Goldeneye and The Island.

Harrowing Execution

In the past, Bean had spoken about Ned's harrowing execution and how he approached the story with knowledge of his character's fate already at the back of his mind. "You can’t really change it when a good author has wrote it that way. You can’t say, 'I want to stay on!'," he told Vulture in 2019. "The buildup to his death was good, and it was shocking. You can’t really ask for more than that in a character."

Game of Thrones managed to survive Ned Stark, and many other consequent, equally dumbfounding deaths in its eight season run, to become one of the best rated shows of all time. Surprisingly, however, Bean admitted that he never really kept up with the show following his exit and was not sure about how the story ended.

Ned Stark met an early and shocking death on 'Game of Thrones'.
via: Mint

In a recent interview with The Times, he was asked about his opinion on the massively controversial final season of the David Benioff and D.B. Weiss series. His answer was short and quite remarkably unaware. "No. What happened?," the 62-year old posed. When Ed Potton, the interviewer, offered a disclaimer that any exposition would offer spoilers in case he eventually decided to catch up with the story, Bean was once again rather curt. "I’ll have forgotten by then, go on."

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Always-Looming Threat

Basically, there were two main central plot streams in Game of Thrones. The first focused on the always-looming threat of an undead army coming to annihilate human life in the kingdoms of Westeros, where the story is set. The second was about the internal clamor for the iron throne, the ultimate symbol of power in the kingdoms.

Ned was the head of House Stark, one of a number of noble families in the realm. House Stark rarely showed any real ambition to acquire the iron throne, often preferring to be left to their own devices in Winterfell, their home base to the north of the kingdoms.

Season 8 finally saw humanity triumph over the dead, and Ned's daughter, Sansa crowned 'Queen In The North.' This was one of the less frustrating eventualities for fans of the series. Ned's youngest son, Bran, who survived a nasty fall in the first season, was crowned king over all the other kingdoms. Nonetheless, all this was news to Bean.

In the Times article, Potton wrote of the actor's reaction: "I describe how Ned’s son becomes king of Westeros and his daughter queen of the North. 'So did Winterfell stay separate? Oh, good for them,' he says with grandfatherly vagueness."

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Constant Screen Presence

Bean has remained a constant presence on the screen since his GOT exit and is in fact now more focused on parts that don't end in the demise of his characters. He was most recently seen as the character Mark Cobden, a new prisoner struggling to cope with life behind bars in the BBC One series, Time by Jimmy McGovern.

Sean Bean as Mark Cobden in BBC One's 'Time'.
via: Manchester Evening News

He has also caught the eye with his portrayal of the villain, Joseph Wilford (popularly Mr. Wilford) on the TNT/Netflix dystopian series, Snowpiercer. Furthermore, he played a wealthy CEO called John Parse whose family is targeted by an assassin possessing other people's bodies to commit crimes. This was in the 2020 science fiction film, Possessor.

Bean reflected on these two roles and how his respective characters both experienced a close shave with death. Mr. Wilford's throat was slashed in Snowpiercer, and the actor admits for a moment he feared the worst.

"It was a bit worrying, truly! I feel everybody expects me to die in some unspecified time in the future on this collection. That’s what I do," he told the New York Times. "I’m not likely that bothered by dying if there’s a justifiable cause for it. However, I don’t wish to preserve dying on a regular basis."

NEXT: Netflix Confirms 'Snowpiercer' Season Two And Teases Sean Bean's Role