The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now almost old enough to get a driving license. Since 2008 we’ve seen a massive 32 movies and an ever-growing number of television shows. Over that time almost every working actor in Hollywood has appeared in these movies, with Avengers: Endgame alone boasting an astonishing seven Oscar winners and 18 Oscar nominees amongst its cast.
Perhaps inevitably due to the sheer numbers, many MCU actors have now died since they appeared in the movies and TV shows. These range from bona fide cultural icons to talented character actors known primarily for work elsewhere. So, let’s pay tribute to some much-missed MCU stars.
Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa / Black Panther)
The world was stunned in August 2020 when the news broke that Chadwick Boseman had died at the age of 43. The Black Panther star had kept his illness a secret from everyone except his close family, leaving the world shocked that he’d battled cancer in private. Kevin Feige said it was “absolutely devastating”, and tributes flooded in from his MCU co-workers and friends.
Marvel Studios quickly underlined that it wasn’t going to recast T’Challa or attempt a posthumous performance using CGI. This eventually resulted in the funereal Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with the characters mourning T’Challa clearly channeling their real emotions at Boseman’s death.
William Hurt (General Thaddeus Ross)
William Hurt had been with the MCU almost from the beginning. He made his debut in The Incredible Hulk and went on to appear in Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, and Black Widow. Beyond the MCU Hurt was considered one of the greatest living actors, scoring three consecutive Best Actor Oscar nominations, and winning for 1985’s Kiss of the Spider-Woman.
Hurt was set to reprise the role in Captain America: Brave New World, with his character having become the President, though he died in March 2022 from complications relating to prostate cancer. Harrison Ford will succeed him as General Ross. Even a megastar like him has some big shoes to fill.
Ray Stevenson (Volstagg)
Ray Stevenson had already Frank Castle in The Punisher: War Zone by the time he arrived in the MCU. Here his impressive presence and gravitas were put to good use as the Asgardian Volstagg in Thor, and he went on to reprise the role in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok.
Stevenson also appeared in Rome, King Arthur, RRR, and most recently in Disney Plus’ Ahsoka as the enigmatic Baylan Skoll. In May 2023 Stevenson was hospitalized in Italy while shooting his latest movie Cassino in Ischia and died soon afterwards at the age of 59. No cause of death has been made public.
Powers Boothe (Gideon Malick)
Powers Boothe was a legendary character actor with a career stretching back to the mid-1970s. Over that time he appeared in Red Dawn, Nixon, Tombstone, Con Air, and Sin City on the big screen, while also turning heads with TV appearances in Deadwood, 24, Hatfields & McCoys, and a lot of voice work for DC Animation.
In the MCU he played Gideon Malick, one of the antagonists in The Avengers. In that movie, he was a member of the World Security Council that authorized a nuclear bomb to be deployed on Manhattan, with subsequent appearances on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. revealing him to have been a secret HYDRA agent all along.
Boothe died in 2017 from prostate cancer at the age of 68.
Garry Shandling (Senator Stern)
Garry Shandling was best known for The Larry Sanders Show which skewered late-night talk shows, scoring 18 Emmy nominations for it and winning Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1998 for the series finale. Prior to that he’d also scored a hit with It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, and had made big screen appearances in Dr. Dolittle, Zoolander, Over the Hedge, and The Dictator.
Shandling carved out a space for himself in the MCU as Senator Stern, who debuted in Iron Man 2. In that movie Stern argued that Tony Stark was dangerous and should hand his tech over to the US military. Unbeknownst to the American public Stern was secretly a HYDRA member. In The Winter Soldier, this duplicity was revealed and he was promptly arrested.
Shandling died in 2016 at the age of 66 from a pulmonary embolism linked to hyperparathyroidism, a disease he’d battled for many years.
Gaspard Ulliel (Anton Mogart)
Gaspard Ulliel had been impressing audiences and critics alike since his debut in 2001’s Brotherhood of the Wolf, going to play Hannibal Lector in Hannibal Rising, and picking up three consecutive Most Promising Actor nominations at the César Awards for Summer Things, Strayed, and A Very Long Engagement.
Ulliel died in January 2022 at the age of 37 after a tragic skiing accident in which he suffered serious brain trauma. He would make his posthumous MCU debut just a few months later in Moon Knight as Anton Mogart/Midnight Man in the episode “The Friendly Type”, which was dedicated to his memory.
Miguel Ferrer (Vice President Rodriguez)
Miguel Ferrer was a beloved character actor, noted for his appearances in Twin Peaks, RoboCop, Traffic, and NCIS: Los Angeles. As an interesting aside Spider-Man 2099 / Miguel O’Hara was named after Ferrer by his creator Peter David as a tribute to his friend.
Ferrer played Vice President Rodriguez in Iron Man 3, who was motivated by his daughter’s illness to team up with the villainous Aldrich Killian. He died at the age of 61 in January 2017 after complications arising from throat cancer.
Stan Lee (Various)
C’mon, I don’t need to introduce Stan Lee to you. In recognition of his long career in Marvel, he’d been making cameos on the big screen ever since 2000’s X-Men. Marvel Studios continued this tradition, and he would go on to appear in every MCU movie up until a posthumous cameo in Avengers: Endgame.
Aside from his cameos, Lee played himself in Entourage, The Big Bang Theory, and Mallrats, as well as a whole bunch of minor appearances in Marvel animated series and video games.
Lee died at the age of 95 in November 2018, with his death recorded as a combination of heart failure, pneumonia, and respiratory failure. He may be gone, but his globe-spanning Marvel legacy endures.