Sean Bean Death Reel

July 14, 2011 7:03 PM

Everyone knows that Sean Bean is, in fact, the balls. In addition to being Boromir, Ned Stark, and 006, the man has had unnumerable classic roles, yet has flown mostly under the radar for much of his career. But if you need a tough but good looking dude to glower menacingly and hurt people, either for the angels or the devils, then Sean Bean is your man. The downside is that, well, he dies a lot. A LOT.
posted by Slap*Happy (83 comments total)

I love Sean Bean. He was also great in Ronin. Didn't die, but crapped out early. He's a perennial red shirt.
posted by HumanComplex at 7:08 PM on July 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

His performance as the dying Boromir deserves not to be seen in this context.
posted by Trurl at 7:10 PM on July 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Sean Bean is dead sexy.
posted by Riki tiki at 7:12 PM on July 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

He reads a mean audiobook, too.

Sean Bean is constructed entirely of equal parts of WIN and YUM.

And I will NEVER forget his Boromir. It hurts my heart to even think about that death scene. Unbearably magnificent.
posted by perilous at 7:14 PM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think "good-looking" is going a bit far.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 7:15 PM on July 14, 2011

OK, that's mean and I take it back. But I grew up around girls obsessively perving on the LOTR cast, and I just don't get his appeal.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 7:17 PM on July 14, 2011

I think "good-looking" is going a bit far.

Not far enough in my opinion. Rawr.

Of course, my appreciation is first and foremost his, um, sterling personal qualities and talent. Yep.
posted by jokeefe at 7:18 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Data point: Mrs. Trurl is all about the Bean.
posted by Trurl at 7:19 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

My Sean Bean story:

I have a bit of a thing for Sean Bean. Mr. Leezie knows of this and finds it harmless. That was tested when he came home from business travel one night a few years ago. At the precise moment he came through the front door, I was watching a fairly medicore Sean Bean flick that was at the pivotal love scene involving him "sleeping" on his stomach, buck naked. His hot buns were taking up my 52" TV. So what's a girl to do when she's watching a movie and hubby comes home?

I paused it, of course. Right on the image of Sean Bean's ass. Right after greeting me, Sean Bean's buns greeted Mr. Leezie. We still laugh about it.
posted by Leezie at 7:20 PM on July 14, 2011 [20 favorites]

Oh, Sean Bean. You're like an older, gruffer and Englisher version of Nathan Fillion.

How I heart you both.
posted by Silverdragonanon at 7:22 PM on July 14, 2011 [16 favorites]

Anyone know the music in that video? The leading violin sounds like Warren Ellis of The Dirty Three, but I don't think it's them.
posted by gauche at 7:25 PM on July 14, 2011

Seeen Beeen!
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:27 PM on July 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

He's a good actor....seems to play a lot of loose cannons...he makes me feel a bit creepy,
(Ronin, LOTR), which means to me he's doing a good job.
posted by eggtooth at 7:30 PM on July 14, 2011

Isn't someone due to have a SPOILER flameout over this thread?

(Sean Bean dies awesome.)
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:32 PM on July 14, 2011

I think Sean Bean has to die a lot in every other part he plays, because he spent years playing the absolutely unkillable Sharpe. That character should have died two or three times in each movie, but he always comes out alive.

He's a really brilliant actor - sadly, he has wrecked his voice with smoking.
posted by jb at 7:33 PM on July 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

His particular, like, Sean Bean cadence is such that I think it would be ripe for like parody and imitation, yet nothing comes to mind.
posted by kbanas at 7:35 PM on July 14, 2011

Well, he's now over-50 and has smoked like a chimney for the whole of his life, so he's starting to look a bit rough...

but young Sean Bean was as gorgeous as an angel. There's a reason that he's better known in the UK as a heart throb. The Yorkshire accent puts him over the top, of course -- northern accents make every man sexier.
posted by jb at 7:36 PM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

A comedian tried to make fun of his unique cadence and intonation.

Once.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:36 PM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Even as someone who's been a fan of Sean Bean for years (I always picked Trevelyan in Goldeneye), I was blown away by how good he was in Red Riding: 1974. It's not a big role, but he's so memorably creepy in it.
posted by Rangeboy at 7:38 PM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

That slayed me; I'm rather torn apart.
posted by smirkette at 7:44 PM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

In the run up to the first LOTR I remember reading somewhere about him being a reviled actor. I never really got that. Good to see the guy getting his due (via a compilation of his death scenes).
posted by dobie at 7:53 PM on July 14, 2011

"And what may we assume from your charming Irish lilt?"
posted by bwg at 8:11 PM on July 14, 2011

Shawn Bawn
posted by Senor Cardgage at 8:11 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

hm. I am having an interesting reaction in that - the sean bean in LOTR seems to look significantly different than all the other sean beans. Is it a different version, or perhaps a different actor playing sean bean?
posted by rebent at 8:20 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I will never forgive him for trying to steal the Declaration of Independence.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:21 PM on July 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Yes I do love him. Yes I do.
posted by Glinn at 8:22 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The LOTR death was overwraught. In GoT, he was just a dumb Northener who managed to get himself killed. At least in Ronin he got to live, 'cause everyone realized he was an idiot.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:36 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Not good-looking? Looks pretty good to me. But then, I like a guy who knows how to handle his rifle.
posted by Squeak Attack at 8:52 PM on July 14, 2011 [11 favorites]

I just came to say "oh my" about SqueakAttack's pic.

Oh my.
posted by sio42 at 9:10 PM on July 14, 2011

Sean Bean stabbed in London bar fight
posted by homunculus at 9:16 PM on July 14, 2011

Seeen Beeen!

We call him that, too! Fantastic.
posted by HumanComplex at 9:23 PM on July 14, 2011

Isn't someone due to have a SPOILER flameout over this thread?


Is this the thread to talk about A Dance With Dragons?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:24 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Still Sharp[e]." (Sorry, jb.)

And he made it to the end of -- and was naked in -- 1988's Stormy Monday.
posted by Gelatin at 9:27 PM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

The actor was reportedly punched in the face and stabbed in the arm with broken glass.

Despite the injuries, Bean chose not to go to the hospital. Instead, he accepted a first aid kit from the bar staff and then ordered another drink.
posted by absalom at 9:28 PM on July 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Sean Bean stabbed in London bar fight

Man, the guy who sits next to me at work won't shut up about this, as if I wouldn't also be willing to get stabbed in a bar fight to protect my lady friend and then order another drink while still dripping blood as if nothing happened. I would totally be up for that, I've just never found the right time.

And the right amount of not being terrified of physical confrontations, the sight of my own blood, and pain.
posted by Copronymus at 9:33 PM on July 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

Seeen Beeen!

Shawn Bawn

Dammit, I thought I came up with that joke on a drunk rant... "Dammit man, Seen Been or Shawn Bawn. You can't have it both ways!"
posted by FatherDagon at 10:12 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

My boyfriend does the Seen Been/Shawn Bawn thing all the time whenever we watch anything of his.

I think Sean Bean is one of those guys that just gets better and better with age. And I'm not normally into older men. The accent adds to it, even though I've known several Northern English people in my life. But another thing is that killer smile.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:27 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I first saw him in a miniseries adaptation of Clarissa. Hot damn. Riveting and unforgettable.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:55 PM on July 14, 2011

Wowsa! If any actor could pull off Lovelace, Sean Bean is the guy. I didn't know that existed -- thanks, CI.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 11:14 PM on July 14, 2011

I hate Sean Bean. He was also shit in Ronin

Sean Bean is an acting blind spot for me, I'm sure he must be a good actor because so many people rate him but I just can't see it. I'm assuming he's this generation's Michael Caine and eventually as he gets old he will improve by some sort of osmosis.
posted by fullerine at 11:50 PM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

fullerine - he's been in a lot of badly written stuff, and I really disliked how he played Boromir. that said, I wondered if that was a directorial choice, because I've see him play the golden, charming sort of man Boromir should be.
posted by jb at 12:05 AM on July 15, 2011

It's funny you say that, jb, because I remember one of my first post-Fellowship thoughts was that I hadn't thought it would ever have been possible to make me like Boromir. But then, I hated Boromir, so, so much, for years, flames on the side of my face. So for me that was a pretty masterful acting job.
posted by Errant at 12:27 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

This thread is going to bring about the SPOILEROCALYPSE.
posted by Justinian at 12:30 AM on July 15, 2011

Holy Shit! The Field! It's been years since I've seen that movie-- so long in fact, that I never made the connection years later that Bean played the son. Richard Harris' character was a total bastard in that movie. I'm still angry w/ him 20 years later.
posted by KingEdRa at 12:40 AM on July 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

I am so glad I caught up on Game of Thrones last weekend. That is all.
posted by crossoverman at 1:44 AM on July 15, 2011

Man, the guy who sits next to me at work won't shut up about this, as if I wouldn't also be willing to get stabbed in a bar fight to protect my lady friend and then order another drink while still dripping blood as if nothing happened. I would totally be up for that, I've just never found the right time.

That's a fairly typical night out in Sheffield.

Also, over here we wouldn't call it being stabbed. We'd call it being stabbed, or bottled.
posted by veedubya at 1:56 AM on July 15, 2011

Ach!

We'd call it being glassed, or bottled.
posted by veedubya at 1:56 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oooh, my favourite bit of rough. I wore out my old VHS tape of When Saturday Comes. Terrible film. Dreadful. (Okay, I confess, I wore out the bit of the tape where he's full-frontal in the changing room.)
posted by essexjan at 2:13 AM on July 15, 2011

Never liked him.
posted by palbo at 2:31 AM on July 15, 2011

palbo: "Never liked him."

Then all those death scenes must have been highly enjoyable.
posted by bwg at 2:46 AM on July 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

I don't always get stabbed at the pub.

And I thought his cocky bravado morphing into nervous bluster then cowed exposure in Ronin was perfect for the role.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 2:46 AM on July 15, 2011

northern accents make every man sexier
What a wise woman you are, jb.
posted by Abiezer at 3:44 AM on July 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bumped into him in a hotel bar once. Thought 'there's Sean Bean enjoying a quiet pint', and let him get on with it.

A couple of days later, I happened to mention it to Mrs C. She nearly killed me for not phoning her at the time...
posted by monkey closet at 4:33 AM on July 15, 2011

when watching Bravo Two Zero, I kept wondering if they'd insert a rewrite from the original book specifically to give Sean Bean's character a death scene just because it was, like, a standard rider in his contract or something.
posted by bl1nk at 4:43 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

This far in and nobody's mentioned Patriot Games
posted by nathancaswell at 4:46 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even though he's a bit over the hot/crusty-craggy line now, Squeak Attack's link is the epitome of Sean Bean for me (and he's a good actor too)...I'll be in my bunk.
posted by biscotti at 5:03 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes. As my daughter likes to call him...Sharpie!

My introduction to him was Stormy Monday, and if you haven't seen that film give it a shot. It was one of those movies that mostly flew under the radar but Roger Ebert's review sold it to me:

"Stormy Monday" is about the way light falls on wet pavement stones, and about how a neon sign glows in a darkened doorway. It is about the attitudes that men strike when they feel in control of a situation, and the way their shoulders slump when someone else takes power. It is about smoking. It is about cleavage. It is about the look on a man's face when someone is about to deliberately break his arm, and he knows it. And about the look on a woman's face when she is waiting for a man she thinks she loves, and he is late, and she fears it is because he is dead.

(One of my favorite movie reviews of all time.)
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:43 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

because I've see him play the golden, charming sort of man Boromir should be.

Did we read the same LOTR? Boromir was a dick, and I hated him; he had to die protecting the hobbits to redeem himself. I thought Bean did a perfect job with the role.
posted by menschlich at 6:21 AM on July 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

If they ever made a movie of The Deadliest Catch, Sean Bean would make the perfect Captain character.
posted by bwg at 6:47 AM on July 15, 2011

I took the other view of Boromir. He was a charming, first-born heir who all the men loved and who was courageous and valiant. But the ring got to him.
posted by rebent at 6:48 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I never liked him either...that's why I think he's a superb actor.
posted by eggtooth at 6:49 AM on July 15, 2011

Anyone know the music in that video? The leading violin sounds like Warren Ellis of The Dirty Three, but I don't think it's them.
posted by gauche at 3:25 AM on July 15

It's the music from the Dead Island trailer.
posted by dng at 7:03 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Was Boromir a dick, or did the ring corrupt him? I always read it as that he was a charming, brave, golden-son type who is only secretly weak (weaker than his "less perfect" brother Faramir) and breaks down under the influence of the ring to become desperate and grasping. I wanted to see more of that transition - but they started him off kind of crabby, so it didn't read right.
posted by jb at 7:18 AM on July 15, 2011

And the right amount of not being terrified of physical confrontations, the sight of my own blood, and pain.

I was stabbed, in the small hours of a house party. I was pretty loaded, but even at that, it didn't hurt much at all. In fact, I was surprised at how little it hurt. It went about 5 inches into my thigh.

Of course, I pulled the knife out of my leg and beat the shit out of the dude. When the police arrived, he went to jail and I went to the hospital where I had surgery to repair the damage to my leg.

3 days later, I was on a plane for Idaho to fight forest fires. A week after that, I was caught changing the dressing, and sent home. The MN DNR blacklisted me for that - I was supposed to tell them about the injury, but they wouldn't have let me go if I did, and I needed the money.

And boy did I need the money. I filed for bankruptcy 6 months later over the 22,000 dollars I owed to the hospital.

Anyway - I'd take a stabbing over another broken bone any day.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:20 AM on July 15, 2011

or what rebent said.

In my head, Boromir was everything a perfect prince should be on the outside -- which contrasts him with Strider/Aragorn who is rough and ill-mannered - but inside a much stronger man.
posted by jb at 7:21 AM on July 15, 2011

Sean Bean must share an agent with Brendan Fraser and James Purefoy, because he will sign up for anything. Including a film with giant sloths, cavemen and zombies, whose name I regrettably cannot remember. That said, I do like him as an actor; he's rather good at gnarled manliness.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 7:44 AM on July 15, 2011

I am so glad I caught up on Game of Thrones last weekend. That is all.

I was planning to do it this coming weekend but yeaaahhhh... my fault for not connecting the name to the face straight away and then forgetting he's in a tv series I still have to watch. So no hard feelings for the spoilers, people. I swear. Honest. Really. I'm fine. My own fault also for not catching up earlier.

(sigh... and I had managed to avoid any GoT spoilers til now)

And his fault too, for developing such a bad habit really.

he's rather good at gnarled manliness

Ah yes. Nice way to describe it. (I had to look up "gnarled" in the dictionary - non-native speaker here - I think it's my new favourite word)
posted by bitteschoen at 8:03 AM on July 15, 2011

"Was it worth having the hundreds of other characters in the game all voiced by the same five mediocre voice actors so we could afford Sean Bean for Oblivion?"

Yes. Yes it was.
posted by straight at 8:32 AM on July 15, 2011

Moby should have killed him off in We Are All Made of Stars.
posted by gnomeloaf at 8:59 AM on July 15, 2011

Denethor was a dick. Boromir and Faramir were tight, and Boromir always hated the way Denethor treated Faramir. The ring did turn Boromir, whose first thought was always the protection of his people, as would befit the role he was groomed for all his life.

I dont agree with all the changes Peter Jackson had to make in the movie, but I understand that they were mostly necessary cinematic changes to make the movie comprehensible to those unfamiliar with the tale. I hate what he did in a couple of spots, including what he did to Boromir and Faramir - but Sean Bean was brilliant in the role.

/LOTR nerd
posted by perilous at 9:30 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I agree with your take on Boromir vs. Aragorn/Strider, jb, especially as initially viewed through the eyes of our hobbit stand-ins. I just never read it that way, and honestly I still have trouble seeing it even after Bean's performance, because he just always seemed like such a dick to me. But I liked Strider right away and so was pre-disposed to disliking anyone who wanted to master him. I think I followed Frodo's pov, who tended to see beyond appearances to people's inner selves.

I think the movie writers had your interpretation, though. One of Ebert's best insights, in my opinion, was when he described the books as following the hobbits as protagonists while the movies focused on the Men. Seen in that light, the way Boromir is written and portrayed makes sense to me. I'd just honestly never seen it. Where in the book is there a similar scene to Boromir teaching the hobbits how to fight and wrestling playfully with them? If there is one, it didn't have the same impact. The movies humanize Boromir, whereas I think the books embody him as an allegory of arrogance masking cowardice, a cautionary tale.
posted by Errant at 9:58 AM on July 15, 2011

Oh, and yeah perilous, making Faramir into a dude tempted enough by the ring to take Frodo and Sam as treasure really bothered me. I think on balance it probably makes more sense than the books do, i.e. only Aragorn is strong enough to resist and therefore strong enough to rule, plus if the ring is so powerful how come everyone we see who sees it goes, "meh", etc. But dammit, that's Faramir, he's awesome, don't make him an asshole.
posted by Errant at 10:02 AM on July 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

I don't think that merely being tempted to take the ring makes one an asshole. Gandalf refused to take the ring and I assumed that it was because he feared that he would be corrupted by it. I actually liked the fact that Faramir was tempted but resisted. I think it actually makes him appear stronger (it's easy to refuse the ring if you aren't tempted by it. Lusting after the ring and still not taking it shows real strength of character).

BTW - Is GoT going to be out on DVD by Christmas? Because I don't have HBO and I want to watch this series very badly.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:44 AM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Woah, that didn't exactly turn out to be the GoW Trailer rip-off I thought it was going to be.
posted by fullerine at 10:45 AM on July 15, 2011

I think early spring is a better bet, Lurgi. But it's not impossible.
posted by Justinian at 11:31 AM on July 15, 2011

The Emmys' most glaring omissions
posted by homunculus at 11:55 AM on July 15, 2011

It's not the temptation so much as the "I'm taking you and the ring back to Gondor so dad will love me". Which is very, very out of character for the book Faramir.
posted by Errant at 12:58 PM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Agreed, Errant. Faramir is one of the most noble of all the men in those books, and I really hate what PJ did to him in the interests of cinematic fluidity. I understand it, but I hate it, and I think they could have written him better to keep him more in line with who he was in the books.
posted by perilous at 1:50 PM on July 15, 2011

Agreed, Errant. Faramir is one of the most noble of all the men in those books, and I really hate what PJ did to him in the interests of cinematic fluidity. I understand it, but I hate it, and I think they could have written him better to keep him more in line with who he was in the books.

I agree with both of you. I think really it's a symptom of overplaying the "Denethor thinks Faramir is the lesser of his sons" angle which leads to all kind of nonsense with the charge of the last brigade scene as Denethor stuffs his face with grapes etc.
posted by nathancaswell at 1:57 PM on July 15, 2011

Also, I liked Bean as Boromir well enough. I wish he'd been given a tad more depth but I can live with it as it was. IMO the best casting in the whole shebang was Karl Urban as Eomer though, he's just haughty, awesome, and perfect.
posted by nathancaswell at 2:00 PM on July 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Mind where you put your feet, me dreams are all over the bloody floor."
posted by biffa at 2:13 PM on July 15, 2011

So, uh, the one where he's beheaded is the last one, right? THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
posted by asperity at 2:19 PM on July 15, 2011

Karl Urban as Eomer was fantastic, no question, and I really like that they kept the bloody poetry of the Rohirrim intact. I do wish that they'd kept in that awesome bit in The Two Towers where Aragorn and Eomer, upon meeting, start having a pissing contest over who's a bigger badass, which Aragorn wins by using half a page to rattle off all the crazy cool names other people have given him. It would have been pure fan service, but I bet Vigo Mortensen would have nailed it.
posted by Errant at 2:51 PM on July 15, 2011