by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: September 15, 2008   Last Updated: December 09, 2009

Cinema is now well over 100 years old, and it's a sad fact that there are now a great number of films where everyone involved is now dead. Even watching 'Bring Back Star Wars' a few months ago, this author was struck by the way in which the cast of one of the most energetic series of films ever made has been reduced slowly to a gang of shambling old men.

So even though Fritz Lang invented cinematic science-fiction with Metropolis and was then popping up in cameos as late as Godard's Le Mepris in the 1960s, that whole generation of pioneers is now long dead. Orson Welles lasted long enough to span everything from his pinnacle Citizen Kane, to his nadir - Transformers the Movie. The rest... is silence.

Who is missed in particular though, by this lone author? Apart from Orson Welles? Well, it tends to be those who passed away without really ever fulfilling their potential. John Wayne may be sadly mourned by a billion Western fans, but no one can say he didn't have a fair crack of the whip at his career. Other stars have had their careers cut short, tragically. To find out who, read on, in no particular order...

1) Robert Stephens.

Father of Bond villain Toby Stephens, Robert was a rich-voiced British actor in the stage tradition. His film career spanned at least 25 years - from a role in Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet (as the Prince) to Branagh's Henry V in 1989. But it's his work in other media that cements his reputation - he was Aragorn in the BBC Radio adaptation of Lord of the Rings, and scared a nation's children as the evil Abner Brown in BBC TV's immortal adaptation of John Masefield's Box of Delights. If he hadn't died in the 90s (I'm assuming due to his well-documented alcoholism), he would have been an absolute dead cert to play Snape in the Harry Potter films, alongside just about any other role Alan Rickman's taken in the last five years.

2) John Belushi.

It says a lot that in the ill-advised Blues Brothers 2000, it took three actors to replace John Belushi and they still didn't make it worth watching. The Blues Brothers is one of only a handful of films made by the comedian before his untimely death, but he steals it so completely that it's a tragedy that he didn't go on to do even greater work.

3) Marlon Brando.

He became a bit of a joke towards the end of his life, which was a great shame - particularly as his final major role was in a dreadful crime thriller called The Score, where he, De Niro and Edward Norton

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