Buoso Donati and 9 Other Dead Guys You Need to Know
Sometimes the most important character in a story is also the...deadest? It's true! Read all about these famous corpses below.
At number one on our list of dead guys is the infamous Buoso Donati! This guy is dead. Really dead. Like, dies almost as soon as the curtain opens and stays dead for the rest of the show. So why is he so important to Puccini's one-act opera? Well, as the family patriarch Donati had a TON of money, property, and assets, but instead of leaving it to his family, he decides (before kicking the bucket) that all of his possessions and wealth are to go to a local monastery. Good thing only the family knows he's dead (and where he kept his will). Now to find someone to impersonate the stiff just long enough to draw up a new will...
Played by Daniel Radcliffe, Manny is a dead guy that has washed ashore on an island whose only inhabitant is the lost Hank (Paul Dano). Hank was on the verge of suicide before discovering Manny, and finds an unlikely friend in the corpse - think Tom Hanks and Wilson in Cast Away. Funny and disturbing, Hank and Manny's friendship begs the question: how dead can a dead guy really be?
Greed, fraud, and drugs. For poor Bernie Lomax, these three mean the end to his life as a CEO of a New York insurance coorporation after he crosses his mob partner, Vito. For two of his subordinates, Larry and Richard, it means one crazy weekend of parties, deception, and hitmen.
4. norma bates - Psycho
Never seen, but always in the room like a rotting stench, Norman Bates's mother is often the center of conversation. She controls his life and keeps him close, but where is this woman? Come to find out, she's been in the cellar this whole time...AS A MUMMIFIED CORPSE FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS!!! Gross.
He trained and prepared his granddaughter, Olive, for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, but Grandpa would never make it to the tacky hotel lobby ceremony. He dies about halfway through the trip, and the family must sneak his body out of the hospital and into their less-than-optimal volkswagen to finish their cross-country roadtrip. His wisdom and real-world bluntness keep this dysfunctional family together, though, even in death.
**WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW** CLick here to skip.
6. john kramer - saw
The first of many disturbing clues in Jigsaw's sadistic game, John Kramer's dead body is more than meets the eye. A kind of silent witness to the unwilling participant's actions, this corpse provides one of maybe the greatest horror film twists of all time.
In Stephen King's novella The Body (turned into popular movie Stand By Me) the search for Ray Brower drives the plot from beginning to end. His body isn't discovered until the final scenes, but his body is "the catalyst for a trip that ushers four boys out of childhood forever."
8. Mr. Body - Clue
One could easily argue that without a Mr. Body, Clue could never exist. The living Mr. Body invites everyone together for a party, then his corpse slowly reveals why they are all there. This story - which has been translated into staged productions, an unforgettable film classic, and of course a board game - will bring out the detective in any of us.
When a small village in Ireland discovers one of their beloved residents has died after he learns he has won the lottery, it is a race against time to convince the official representatives of the National Lotto Commission that Ned Devine is in fact alive and ready to claim his prize.
This '90s cult classic follows a family of siblings as they deal with a dead (evil) baby sitter. Their solution? Shove her into a trunk and dispose of her at a funeral home. Too bad all of their summer money was inside the corpse's convenient coffin...
From operas to novellas to movies and more, corpses have compelled storylines for centuries. Catch a famous dead guy on stage here in Memphis with Puccini Double Bill: Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi!