The Saddest 'Grey's Anatomy' Deaths, Ranked

August 2024 · 16 minute read

The Big Picture

When Grey’s Anatomy kicked off during mid-season 2005, no one could ever imagine it would become as big as it did, and fans had no idea they were about to enter a decades-long emotional rollercoaster. Created by Shonda Rhimes, the show has had its ups and downs, with episodes ranging from impressive and emotional to downright embarrassing.

However, one element that is a constant cause of anguish in this emotional joyride is the deaths of beloved characters who have left their mark on the series. Because the show takes place inside a hospital, one would expect to see patients die occasionally. The thing is, it's not only patients who have died throughout Grey’s Anatomy’s run, and some character deaths hit us to our very core. While we wait for the Season 20 premiere of Grey's to see if Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) will join the ranks of dearly departed doctors, here are 19 of the most devastating deaths in the history of Grey’s Anatomy.

Grey's Anatomy
TV-14Drama

A drama centered on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors.

Release Date March 27, 2005 Cast Ellen Pompeo , James Pickens Jr. , Chandra Wilson , Justin Chambers , Kevin McKidd , Jesse Williams , Patrick Dempsey Main Genre Drama Seasons 20

19 Doc the Dog

Season 2, Episode 27: "Losing My Religion"

Most people remember the Grey's Anatomy episode, "Losing My Religion," for Denny Duquette's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) death, which has a much higher ranking on this list. However, another crucial death happens in this episode, and that's the death of Doc the dog. Known for being a bit of a menace, Doc was a good boy who found a home with Addison (Kate Walsh) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) after Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), George (T.R. Knight), and Izzie (Katherine Heigl) couldn't keep him in their house. Doc soon gets diagnosed with bone cancer, and Meredith and Derek make the heartbreaking decision to put him down, culminating in a tear-jerking scene of MerDer saying goodbye to their beloved pet. While his death might seem to be just a blip in the grand cosmos of Grey's tragedies, Doc's effect is still felt many years later, and in Season 15, Doc made an appearance among Meredith's deceased loved ones in the episode "Flowers Grow Out of My Grave."

18 Dylan Young (played by Kyle Chandler)

Season 2, Episode 17: "As We Know It"

This was one of the first times that Grey’s Anatomy really caught us off-guard. It was all the way back in Season 2, when an unexploded piece of ammunition was stuck inside a patient, and a bomb squad had to be called in to retrieve it — while Meredith's hand held the explosive still inside the body cavity. Enter Dylan Young (Kyle Chandler), a no-nonsense officer who made sure everyone’s nerves were calm while trying to retrieve the dangerous piece of ammo. Tensions were high during the two-episode arc, which became an audience record-breaker after being aired as a lead-out for the Super Bowl in 2006. As the story moved on to its second part, it started to feel like everyone was going to be okay. Meredith’s hand was out of the patient’s stomach, the bomb was secured, and Dylan was cautiously walking away, time bomb in hand. We’re all thinking: “He’s such a nice guy, I hope he comes back.” And then… BOOM. Goodbye, Dylan Young.

17 Bonnie Crasnoff (played by Monica Keena)

Season 2, Episode 6: "Into You Like a Train"

This was one of the early lose-lose scenarios that Grey’s Anatomy presented to us. After a train wreck in the aptly named episode, "Into You Like a Train," the surviving passengers are taken to the hospital, with two of them stuck together after a metal rod sliced through them. As the episode progressed, Bonnie Crasnoff (Monica Keena) and Tom Maynard (Bruce A. Young) were evaluated by a team of doctors who concluded that Bonnie had the least chance of survival. Of course, that happened after Bonnie and Tom talked at length and reached the conclusion that she deserved to survive because she was a lot younger and had her whole life ahead of her. Tragically, there was no saving Bonnie, and as soon as the rod was removed, she crashed and died — and we broke down as well.

16 Heather Brooks (played by Tina Majorino)

Season 10, Episode 2: "I Want You With Me"

Even though Heather Brooks (Tina Majorino) didn’t make a strong impression during her short time in the series, we all know that Grey’s Anatomy has a habit of making us fall in love with characters in the long run, even if they start out as annoying or irrelevant. Heather didn’t have that chance, as she got written out of the series with a tragic death. While trying to save Chief of Surgery Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), the intern inadvertently stepped in a puddle that had an electric current going through it, got electrocuted, fell, and hit her head. This led to a traumatic brain injury and, ultimately, Heather's death. This is the type of death that Grey’s Anatomy sometimes throws at us to remind us that life can turn on a dime, and it works every time. In the long-term, the silver lining of Heather’s death was making the new interns realize they were being bad friends and colleagues, and they all needed to start looking out for each other.

15 Craig Thomas (played by Williams Daniels)

Season 9, Episode 5: "Beautiful Doom"

Very few people could hold a strong influence over someone like Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), one of the most ambitious and memorable members of the original gang at Grey Sloan. But when she went to take a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic following Season 8's catastrophic plane crash, Craig Thomas (William Daniels) became the mentor that she never had at her previous hospital. There was no complicated romantic relationship, and Craig treated her with respect and empathy, offering her life advice that stuck with her long after his untimely demise. After one of the most tragic experiences in Cristina's life – surviving the deadly plane crash that left nearly all the main group permanently traumatized – Craig was a surprising breath of fresh air in the form of a mild curmudgeon. His sudden death in the operating room while working alongside Cristina was a devastating moment, but he left Cristina with lessons to become the brilliant surgeon she was destined to be.

14 Thatcher Grey (played by Jeff Perry)

Season 15, Episode 11: "The Winner Takes It All"

The death of Thatcher Grey (Jeff Perry) is devastating not because it meant the end of a beloved character, but because it mirrors some circumstances that many of us have in life. Meredith had to deal with the fact that Thatcher abandoned her as a child and failed to ever fully reconnect with her in her adult life. To add insult to injury, she also discovered that with his second family, he started over as a good father, providing for his other daughter all the attention and love Meredith was denied. However, his death still hits hard. On his deathbed, Thatcher confesses he regrets being the way he was, and that he tried to reach out to Meredith, but she would no longer listen. When they finally meet for the last time, Meredith grants Thatcher the ultimate gift of forgiveness, which leads to a beautiful moment in which she places her hands tenderly on her father's face and tells him about her children.

13 Mary Portman (played by Mandy Moore)

Season 7, Episode 7: "That's Me Trying"

People who don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy think that the show kills off only its main cast regularly – which is kind of true – but they don’t realize how cruel the show can be to the story’s patients. More often than not, patients are used by the series to illustrate how unpredictable a treatment can be, and just like in real life, death can hit us like a curveball. Sweet and charming patient Mary Portman (Mandy Moore) did the impossible: She survived a mass shooting that happened inside the hospital in Season 6, living through the traumatic moments with Dr. Bailey (Chandra Wilson). We thought we’d seen the last of her, but then she comes back in Season 7 for a relatively simple colostomy bag reversal procedure and… goes into a coma. Then, much to Dr. Bailey's dismay, Mary's organs start to fail one by one. Mary's death was no one’s fault, it simply happened, but it still makes us sad to think about it.

12 Adele Webber (played by Loretta Devine)

Season 9, Episode 10: "Things We Said Today"

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy know that Adele Webber (Loretta Devine) didn’t have it easy. On top of marrying a chief surgeon (meaning he almost never had time for her), she had to stand her ground when she found out her husband had cheated on her. She decided to forgive him but still had to settle for Richard not being the best spouse. Adele’s death was hard to watch because it was dragged out. She first showed symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in Season 7, and it consumed her until the middle of Season 9. During this time, we witnessed her losing track of herself and not being able to recognize the people she loved, until she finally succumbed to a heart attack. It was a sad ending for a character who'd already gone through so much heartbreak.

11 Henry Burton (played by Scott Foley)

Season 8, Episode 9: "Dark Was the Night"

Even though initially this felt like a repeat of the Denny Duquette arc, the story of Henry Burton (Scott Foley) managed to stand on its own well enough that we rooted for him. And so did Teddy: after getting to know his case and empathizing with his story, she decided to marry him, so he’d get health insurance to treat his Von-Hippel-Lindau syndrome (a disease that increases the risk of kidney and pancreatic cancer). What started as a business decision evolved into a relationship as Teddy realized that Henry was a great guy with a terrible condition. Tragically, he loses his battle with the disease on Cristina's operating table. The most gut-wrenching part of his death was that Teddy didn’t get to say goodbye to him, and only found out that he had died after she finished performing another surgery.

10 Diane Pierce (played by LaTanya Richardson Jackson)

Season 13, Episode 18: "Be Still, My Soul"

The more you stick with Grey’s Anatomy, the more you realize that the death of a parent is one of the series’ recurring themes, and many characters have had to deal with it at some point. One of them was Meredith's half-sister, Maggie (Kelly McCreary), who had to witness her adoptive mother battle cancer and then lose. Diane’s (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) death was hard to watch because she represented something we’d rarely seen on the show: a supportive parent who roots for their kid, has been proud of them every step of the way, and isn’t embarrassed to show their love. Maggie did absolutely everything she could to save her mother, but Diane sadly, albeit peacefully, passed away with her daughter by her side.

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9 Samuel Norbert Avery

Season 11, Episode 11: "All I Could Do Was Cry"

Samuel was very present throughout Season 11, even though he never made it past a few minutes old. Before he was even born, the son of Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and April Kepner (Sarah Drew) was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta type II, a rare bone disease that meant that he was unlikely to survive more than a short time after his birth. After the diagnosis came the part no parent should go through: watching their baby be born, witnessing his few precious moments of life, and then having to say goodbye. It’s no surprise that after this event, April started to question her religious beliefs, and experienced a heartbreaking crisis of faith.

8 Ellis Grey (played by Kate Burton)

Season 3, Episode 17: "Some Kind of Miracle"

Ellis Grey (Kate Burton) worked hard to become the very best surgeon in the world, but she didn’t realize that expecting the same of her daughter Meredith poisoned their relationship. As she made herself into the perfect professional role model for her kid, she ended up letting her child grow up without both parents around, as Meredith’s father, Thatcher, left when she was a kid. The death of Ellis Grey, even if it’s not a huge emotional impact, is tragic because Alzheimer’s disease hit her before she had a chance to properly convey she was proud of her child. Meredith had to watch her mother deteriorate through her final days without being able to have meaningful conversations, and Ellis eventually died while Meredith herself was recovering from a drowning, so the two never got to say goodbye.

7 Reed Adamson and Charles Percy (played by Nora Zehetner and Robert Baker)

Season 6, Episodes 23 and 24: "Sanctuary" and "Death and All His Friends"

One of the most memorable episodes of Grey’s Anatomy saw a man go on a shooting spree through the hospital after doctors failed to save his wife's life. Three of the shooter's victims were Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Reed Adamson (Nora Zehetner), and Charles Percy (Robert Baker). The show used them to illustrate the sheer desperation and horrible trauma that shooting victims go through, and it worked. Even though Alex survived, we were pretty sure he wouldn’t make it. Sadly, Reed never had a shot at survival, and Dr. Bailey had to watch Charles die in her arms because the elevators were turned off during the emergency, and she couldn’t get into an operating room in time to save him.

6 Mark Sloan (played by Eric Dane)

Season 9, Episode 2: "Remember The Time"

Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), aka McSteamy, started off as kind of a dick, but over time he evolved to form a buddy relationship with Jackson Avery that was always fun to watch (shout-out to the Plastics Posse.) What’s cruel about Sloan’s death is that we had a whole hiatus to believe it wouldn’t happen. The plastic surgeon survived a plane crash at the end of Season 8 and managed to make it to the hospital and even recover. But in Season 9, his injuries got the best of him. He ended up making his friends promise that if he was put on life support and showed no signs of waking up in 30 days, they had to turn off the machines, so they did. And we still miss him.

5 Andrew DeLuca (played by Giacomo Gianniotti)

Season 17, Episode 7: "Helplessly Hoping"

The death of Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) was the tragic endpoint of a storyline that made us feel for him as much as we rooted for him. The more he treated patients, the more frustrated he got at the fact that it wasn’t possible to save everyone, which meant DeLuca started pulling some extreme stunts to save patients. At the same time, he started showing signs of obsession that could be interpreted as symptoms of bipolar disease. So, when he became convinced that a certain patient was a victim of human trafficking, no one would listen. DeLuca finally managed to prove he was right, but he was stabbed by the human trafficker and succumbed to his injuries. Another lesson from the Grey's Anatomy handbook: no good deed goes unpunished.

4 Lexie Grey (played by Chyler Leigh)

Season 8, Episode 24: "Flight"

A bitter end to an otherwise good season, Grey’s Anatomy decided to throw half of its main cast into a forest in the middle of nowhere after a plane crash. Trapped beneath the airplane debris, Lexie (Chyler Leigh) doesn’t even make it to the end of the episode: she dies in the first fifteen minutes. Much like other characters in Grey’s Anatomy, we get to meet and fall in love with Lexie, empathizing with her insecurities, and being surprised by her whip-smart knowledge of medicine. Her loss felt like an abrupt ending to a character that had a lot more to show and could have evolved into a great surgeon.

3 George O’Malley (played by T.R. Knight)

Season 6, Episode 1: "Good Mourning"

George’s death hit us hard because he was the first of the original five main cast members to go. Up until that point, we had gotten used to seeing George, Meredith, Alex, Cristina, and Izzie as interns fighting over good cases and studying hard as hell to pass medical exams, and we had established a deep connection with the group. To make things worse, for a long time, we didn’t even know George’s life was at risk: he was checked into Seattle Grace as a John Doe after being hit by a bus and dragged for several blocks, which made him unrecognizable. He only managed to be “discovered” after drawing the number 007 on Meredith’s hand – a nickname he'd earned in prior seasons. Even though Knight’s exit was surrounded by controversy, it was still hard to say goodbye to a character that many of us loved so much.

2 Derek Shepherd (played by Patrick Dempsey)

Season 11, Episode 21: "How to Save a Life"

Close

Sometimes Grey’s Anatomy is like a stern parent: it hits us hard with a difficult situation in order to teach us something about life. There were tons of other characters they could use to illustrate how a doctor’s mistake could cost someone their life. But, no, they decided to use none other than McDreamy himself, Derek Shepherd, to tell that story. After rescuing a family in the middle of a road, Derek is hit by a truck and gets sent to a hospital that is understaffed and under-equipped. We get to see his agonizing final minutes in which he realizes mistakes in his treatment are being made and there’s nothing he can do to save himself. This was also the last episode written by series creator Shonda Rhimes, so, in all fairness, she more than earned the right to finish her character's story the way she wanted.

1 Denny Duquette (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan)

Season 2, Episode 27: "Losing My Religion"

You knew it was coming. Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was perfect. A quick-witted, lovable guy on the wait list for a heart transplant, the endless queue he was stuck in made him a regular fixture at the hospital. But as it started to become clear that Denny wouldn’t make it, we started to suffer just as much as Izzie, who risked her entire career to save him and made us think we’d probably do the same. It made perfect sense to kill Denny off from a story perspective, as we had all been mesmerized by his charm and took a hit whenever he got bad news about his long-awaited transplant. Killing a character the audience is invested in is a great way to make compelling TV. But boy was it cruel. We all mourned him, but at least he left a legacy of being one of the most devastating deaths in TV history. Well done, Shonda Rhimes. Well done.

Grey's Anatomy is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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