Every Major Character Death In The Series

When you think about Chuck Lorre’s sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” which ran for 12 seasons and the same number of years on CBS, you probably don’t think of the word “death.” That’s understandable. “The Big Bang Theory” is, for the most part, a pretty light-hearted sitcom … but with that said, a handful of characters do die (off-screen) throughout the series, which has a massive impact on the story. (This isn’t “Game of Thrones,” after all; we’re not forced to watch any of this go down, at least.)

Some of the characters who die off-screen are only mentioned in throwaway lines, so they won’t be included here. For example, Johnny Galecki’s Leonard Hofstadter mentions that his uncle Floyd died in the show’s third season, which is also when Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) misses a gathering with Leonard’s visiting mother because her grandmother just passed away. (Also, anyone who dies in the spin-off “Young Sheldon” is off-limits; apologies to Lance Barber’s George Cooper Sr., who’s deceased during the timeline of “The Big Bang Theory” after passing away in the prequel’s final season.) From a professor whose passing creates a vacancy to a death that was written into the show after the actor passed away, here are the three major deaths that happen during “The Big Bang Theory.”

In the season 6 episode of “The Big Bang Theory” titled “The Tenure Turbulence,” an off-screen death galvanizes the main characters — because they all want the dead guy’s newly-vacated job. As the episode opens, Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) are all eating lunch in the cafeteria at their shared workplace, the California Institute of Technology, when their irritating cohort Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) tells them that the weird smell coming from a tenured professor’s office — the unseen Professor Tupperman — is because he died in there. (Bleak!) To tell you the truth, Professor Tupperman’s death doesn’t bother any of the guys; they almost skip his memorial service because they barely knew him in the first place. Instead, they squabble over the fact that his departure from their shared plane of existence means there’s a tenured position available in CalTech’s physics department.

There’s one very big problem with this situation as far as Sheldon is concerned, though; one of the people on the tenure committee is Janine Davis (Oscar winner Regina King), a human resources administrator at CalTech who had a run-in with Sheldon over a previous complaint about his work conduct. As the rest of the guys (except for Howard, who’s ineligible without a PhD) try to sweet-talk Janine into considering them for the job — Leonard even tries to work out next to her at the CalTech gym and fails miserably — they go further and further as they fight over the job. (This results in a pretty gross scene where Leonard brings Kaley Cuoco’s Penny with him to the memorial service only to reveal that she’s wearing a revealing dress with a push-up bra, which, presumably, is for the benefit of the tenure committee.) Eventually, Janine tells Sheldon, Raj, and Leonard that they’re all on the shortlist for the dead professor’s job, so all’s well that ends well — except for Professor Tupperman, who’s dead.

Okay, this one is actually pretty sad. In “The Comic Book Store Regeneration,” a season 8 episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” everything seems incredibly normal until Howard takes a phone call from his aunt in Florida — his mother, Mrs. Wolowitz, had been staying with her for a visit — and learns that Mrs. Wolowitz took a nap and never woke up. (Throughout the series, Mrs. Wolowitz, who was voiced by small-screen veteran Carol Ann Susi, was never seen but only heard, often screaming at Howard from a different room in their shared house.) Despite their often contentious relationship, Howard is understandably devastated — a feeling that’s exacerbated by the fact that comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), who lived with Mrs. Wolowitz after Howard moved out, is using a bunch of her furniture in his newly reopened shop — but his friends are there for him. (Even Sheldon is kind to him, surprising literally everyone.) After Howard and Bernadette depart for Florida for the funeral, the rest of the gang raises a glass to Mrs. Wolowitz; Raj thanks her for helping him feel welcome in America, Stuart expresses gratitude for the fact that she gave him a place to stay, and Penny remembers a time Mrs. Wolowitz told her to eat more because she was too skinny.

This death was written into the series due to the fact that Susi died of cancer in real life in 2014 — and in 2015, showrunner Steve Molaro said that they wanted to send Susi and Mrs. Wolowitz off in a way that honored the actor and the character at once. After saying that everyone was devastated, Molaro told The Hollywood Reporter, “Eventually the needs of the show [forced the issue] and we had to come up with a plan, and I don’t think we could bring ourselves to replace the actor. The thought of it felt awful to us. That left us with two options: We send the character away — which seemed false and fake — or we go right into it and write it into the show, so that’s what we chose to do.”

Across six episodes of “The Big Bang Theory,” Bob Newhart joined the main cast as Arthur Jeffries, a hero of Sheldon’s who goes by the stage name “Professor Proton.” Newhart — who was greeted with an overwhelmingly joyful reaction from the show’s live studio audience during his first day shooting “The Big Bang Theory” — first shows up in the series’ sixth season when Sheldon learns that Arthur is available to hire for children’s parties as his on-screen character Professor Proton, at which point Sheldon does the weirdest thing possible and simply lures Arthur to his and Leonard’s shared apartment. Despite the fact that Sheldon is a little too psyched over his very presence — to the point where Arthur ends up going to the hospital with Sheldon by his side — the two form an unlikely friendship after Sheldon shares his “get well” song “Soft Kitty” with the ersatz professor, and the two stay in touch.

In season 7, it’s revealed that Arthur passed away, prompting Sheldon to go into mourning … but throughout the rest of “The Big Bang Theory,” Arthur frequently visits Sheldon in his dreams as a sort of hologram dressed in Jedi robes (which is obviously meant to invoke the Force Ghosts from the “Star Wars” franchise). Newhart continued showing up as a ghostly Professor Proton through the show’s 12th season, and when Newhart passed away for real in 2024 at the age of 94, the sitcom’s creator Chuck Lorre posted a touching ode to the comedy legend on X (formerly known as Twitter).

“The Big Bang Theory” is streaming on Max now.