20 actors who were fired, killed off, or quit TV shows they starred in

Fans of The Office will be sad to know that Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott, wasn't offered a contract to return to the series for the last two seasons. "Steve said he would have come back; they didn’t even try," Claire Scanlon, one of the show's editors, revealed in 2021. 

This Hawaii Five-0 actor left the show after seven seasons over salary disputes. After failing to reach an agreement with CBS to secure a bigger paycheck, Grace Park walked away from the show altogether. 

Park isn't the only one who left the show, though. Her co-star, Daniel Dae Kim, also quit the series after failing to reach an agreement with the network. He spilled the tea about his exit in a Facebook post. He wrote, "Though I made myself available to come back, CBS and I weren't able to agree to terms on a new contract, so I made the difficult choice not to continue."

We all loved Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men; however, his "dangerously self-destructive conduct" got his character killed off in 2011. In an 11-page letter sent to Sheen's attorneys from the network, they claimed the actor's productivity levels at work had dropped, which created an issue for the crew behind the scenes. 

"Mr. Sheen had difficulty remembering his lines and hitting his marks. His conduct and condition created substantial tensions on the set," the letter read. "He sometimes showed up to work after not having slept and needed to move his mark to accommodate his need to 'lean' on something, for balance."

Sheen has also been one to do the firing. In 2013, he threatened to quit the FX comedy Anger Management if his co-star, Selma Blair, who questioned his work ethic on set, returned. Sources claimed the actor sent Blair an expletive-filled text message and called her a "c-nt." 

Chevy Chase left the NBC show Community in 2012 after years of disagreements with the production's creator. In a previous interview, the actor said taking the role was a "big mistake; however, he accepted it to care for his wife and children. In October 2012, reports surfaced that the actor had an outburst on set and used a racial slur. 

In 2015, Jake T. Austin, who rose to fame after starring in Wizards of Waverly Place, announced he was leaving the then-ABC Family original series The Fosters. Years later, he clarified why he quit on X, formerly Twitter, and said his character was getting reduced, which meant less screen time. So, instead of taking a backseat, he quit altogether. 

It's no secret that Shonda Rhimes loves killing an actor off if they get out of line, and that was the case for Columbus Short and his character Harrison Wright on ABC's political drama Scandal. "What you think happened to his character, happened to his character," the writer told BET in 2014. 

Short also addressed his departure and admitted he was "struggling with drugs," which didn't allow him to be the best version of himself on set. 

Demi Lovato revealed that after finishing rehab, she chose to leave Disney Channel and her show Sonny With A Chance because it "didn't feel authentic to me."

Chad Michael Murray, who you might know as Lucas Scott from One Tree Hill, shattered hearts worldwide in 2009 when he revealed he was leaving the series after six seasons. He reportedly posted a scathing video criticizing the network. "They're not bringing me back next year ... because they want to save money," he said. 

Steve Whitmire said that Disney fired him (after voicing Kermit the Frog for 27 years) because he pushed back too much on the studio about changes they were making to the character. "... they felt I had been ‘disrespectful’ in being outspoken on character issues," he said. 

The two twins who played Lily in Modern Family quit the first few seasons because they didn't enjoy acting. Their mother told People that since leaving Hollywood, they've enjoyed new "toddler adventures," such as swimming, dance, and gymnastics. 

The world felt heartbreak when Derek Shepherd (McDreamy), played by Patrick Dempsey in Grey's Anatomy, was killed in the later seasons. In the book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, the former executive producer revealed the real reason the beloved fictional doctor was killed off. 

"There were HR issues," they wrote. "Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people." They continued, "He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and (show creator) Shonda (Rhimes) were at each other’s throats."

In Season 3 of the ABC series How To Get Away With Murder, the show's lead character, Wes Gibbons, was killed. It's a shocking twist that fans are still reeling about.  

Ross Butler played Reggie Mantle for one season in Riverdale before quitting to take a different role in Netflix's 13 Reasons. He told Vulture that he "connected with Zach [Dempsey] on a much more real level." 

Roseanne Barr was fired from her show Roseanne on ABC after posting racist statements to her X account. "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,"  Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment, said. 

Kal Penn left his role as Dr. Lawrence Kutner in the Fox TV show House in early 2009 after accepting the role of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for former President Barack Obama's administration. 

Kevin Spacey, who claims he put Netflix on the map after starring in their political series House of Cards, was fired from the show ahead of the series' last season because of sexual assault allegations. 

Danny Masterson is another actor fired from Netflix after being accused of sexual assault. In 2023, he was convicted of two sex crimes and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

John Amos' character was killed off in the television series Good Times after he reportedly criticized the network and the show's white writers for how they were portraying Black people. 

"They’d go on about their credits and the rest of that, and I’d look at each and every one of them and say, 'Well, how long have you been Black? That just doesn’t happen in the community. We don’t think that way. We don’t act that way. We don’t let our children do that,'" he told Sway In The Morning. "I left because I was told that my services were no longer needed because I had become a 'disruptive element.'"