all set to retire from acting after nearly thirty years in the business, and a heart disease scare in the 1970s, when he was offered the role of Coach on Cheers. He took it, and before long, Cheers was one of the biggest shows on TV, thanks in no small part to the slow, yet cheerful Coach Ernie Pantusso. By season three, however, Colasanto’s health was beginning to worsen and he had trouble remembering his lines. In late 1984, he checked into a hospital; in 1985, Coach appeared in his final episode, “Cheerio Cheers,” and Colasanto died. The guilt: his replacement, Woody Boyd, introduced the world to Woody Harrelson. The world is worse off for losing Colasanto; the world is better off with Woody Harrelson in it.

Barbara Colby,one (Spartacus: Blood and Sand) and season two (Spartacus: Vengeance), Starz commissioned Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, a six-episode prequel about gladiator Gannicus that aired in 2011. After Whitfield withdrew from the role and eventually passed away, Liam McIntyre was recast as the titular character. He, too, is ripped.

Redd Foxx, The Royal Family

Redd Fox hadn’t starred in a successful TV show since Sanford and Son went off the air in 1977, so he had a lot of riding on The Royal Family went it premiered in 1991. The ABC sitcom, produced by Eddie Murphy, was about a mailman (played by Foxx) and his wife who were all set to enjoy their retirement years, until their daughter and her three kids, one of whom was played by Glee‘s Naya