Advertisement

The Most Moving Film Death Scenes Revealed

The most moving death scene on film has been revealed...and it's in children's movie <i>The Lion King</i>. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures
The most moving death scene on film has been revealed...and it's in children's movie The Lion King. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

It’s a scene that traumatised a generation of kids, so it’s no surprise that Mustafa’s death in The Lion King has been voted the most iconic movie death in a (slightly macabre) new poll.

The sequences sees Simba’s dad trampled by a herd of wildebeests after he’s pushed of the edge of a cliff by evil brother Scar.

It follows in the grand Disney tradition of parental deaths - see Bambi’s mother (a scene that also makes this list).


Indeed some believe that Disney blamed himself for his own mother’s death when she died of gas poisoning from the furnace of a house he’d bought for her with the profits from Snow White.

The poll was carried out by Perfect Choice Funerals and asked 2,246 British adults as part of research into the attitudes of the British public towards death and how it is shown on film and TV.

Leonardo DiCaprio's freezing end in <i>Titanic</i> almost topped the list. Photo: Paramount Pictures
Leonardo DiCaprio's freezing end in Titanic almost topped the list. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Number two on the list was the death of Jack in Titanic. The character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, froze to death in the Atlantic. Ouch.

Janet Leigh’s shocking (and iconic) murder in the shower in Psycho came in at number three.

The top ten screen deaths is below:

1) Mufasa: The Lion King – 45 per cent
2) Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio): Titanic – 39 per cent
3) Marion Crane (Janet Leigh): Psycho – 37 per cent
4) Noah and Allie (James Garner & Gena Rowlands): The Notebook – 34 per cent
5) Romeo and Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes): Romeo And Juliet – 26 per cent
6) Bambi’s mother: Bambi – 23 per cent
7) John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan): The Green Mile – 21 per cent
8) Kane (John Hurt): Alien – 18 per cent
9) Sgt Elias (Willem Dafoe): Platoon – 14 per cent
10) Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward): The Wicker Man – 11 per cent

PHOTOS: Spoiler alert! The best movie endings of all time

Orlando Parfitt writes for Yahoo Movies UK.