Characters Dying Shortly Before Their Portrayers

[applcin]

Having mentioned Asa Buchanan under other topics lately, I got to wondering what situations have there been where, due to an actor's age, poor health, retirement, etc., his character was killed off and then the actor soon died. For instance, when Phil Carey couldn't continue, OLTL killed Asa off even though Phil lived for some time after.

Usually, these things happen in reverse...the actor dying suddenly (or not so suddenly) and the character eventually being killed off (Mac Cory, Wallingford, Lila Quartermaine, Mary Mae Ward, etc.) but in what cases did an actor basically see his character die not long before his own death?

[yr9190]

The most famous one, Josh Ryan Evans who played Timmy on Passions died the same day his character did on that show.

[DRW50]

On Coronation Street, Bryan Mosley, the wonderful actor who'd played Alf Roberts for about 40 years (off and on), was increasingly unable to work. They decided to have Alf pass away at a party for New Year's. Mosley died a few months later.

[SFK]

This is the example that immediately came to mind. That was so sudden and sad, and beyond eerily coincidental.

I had already forgotten that Asa died before PC. Then he went on to tape some "beyond the grave" video messages from Asa, like Big Guy Beck on Filthy Rich.