Van Der Beek to Reiner: TV's Greatest Posthumous Roles
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- James Van Der Beek, who died in February aged 48, made a posthumous appearance in Amazon's Legally Blonde prequel series Elle as a crooked school district superintendent — bright and "happily self-aware."
- Carrie Fisher filmed her role as Rob Delaney's mother in Catastrophe's third series before her death; the show's final episode is dedicated to her, and her performance was described as "rude, brittle, unsentimental and extremely funny."
- Chadwick Boseman's voice role as T'Challa in Marvel's animated What If…? series came out after his death, offering a "wonderfully light and mischievous performance" of his most iconic character.
- Ray Liotta won a posthumous Emmy nomination for Black Bird, where he played Taron Egerton's character's father in a role described as "equal parts loving and scary" — "arguably his best of all time."
- Miguel Ferrer received a posthumous Saturn Award nomination for his role as FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks: The Return, where his performance was "bruised and tender" and "sanded down some of the character's rougher edges."
- John Spencer died during production of The West Wing's final series; the show built its big election night episode around his death, giving cast and viewers an opportunity to grieve both actor and character.
- Rob Reiner's final screen appearance came seven months after his shocking death on Larry David's historical sketch show Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, playing George Washington; in the scene, onlookers predict the rise of Trump and Reiner's character sighs, "We're fucked."
Why it matters: Amazon's Elle released James Van Der Beek's final TV role after his February death at 48, joining other posthumous releases spanning The West Wing's election-night tribute to John Spencer and Rob Reiner's Larry David sketch appearance. Miguel Ferrer and Ray Liotta both received posthumous nominations — Saturn and Emmy respectively — for these final performances.
