First Episode / Last Episode: 15 Beloved Performers Bookends
![First Episode / Last Episode: 15 Beloved Performers Bookends](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/9/6/878996_320x180.jpg)
You don’t know what you got until it’s gone. It’s a phrase applied to love lost, but can also apply to several of our favorite actors and performers over the years. Whether it was tragedy or just their time being up, several iconic people from the silver screen to our smaller television sets have shuffled off this mortal coil.
Fortunately, several of them left behind a giant library of work for us to stream and watch whenever we’d like to be reminded of them. Several of them left iconic roles and performances that we’ll watch again and again. This Pictofact isn’t about that, though.
This is about the first time we as a culture saw them, and the last time we got to seem them. The times before they were famous and long after, either way it’s a trivia question of the first appearance or the final bow. Here are some of the bookends of our favorite actors over the years.
Robin Williams
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Robin Williams Williams' film debut was in Can / Do It 'Till I Need Glasses? a film filled with sexually suggestive sketches. His last role was the voice of Dennis the Dog in the Simon Pegg film Absolutely Anything. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/7/879007.jpg)
Dauntless Productions, Lionsgate
Patrick Swayze
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Patrick Swayze Swayze first debuted in the roller rink film Skatetown U.S.A. and was last seen as Velvet Larry in the film Powder Blue. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/5/879005.jpg)
Columbia Pictures, Blue Snow Productions
Brittany Murphy
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Brittany Murphy Murphy started as Frank's Sister on an episode of Murphy Brown, and was last seen on our screens on the dramatic horror movie Something Wicked. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/9/879009.jpg)
Tinseltown/Shutterstock, CBS, Merchant Films
Bruce Lee
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Bruce Lee Lee was seemingly born into the film industry, with his first as an infant in 1941's Golden Gate Girl, and his final being his most lauded in 1973's Enter the Dragon. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/9/9/878999.jpg)
Golden Gate, Warner Bros.
Jimmy Stewart
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Jimmy Stewart The actor's first role in a feature length film was in 1935's The Murder Man (titles were simpler back then), and his final role was voicing sheriff dog Wylie Burp in 1996's An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/1/879011.jpg)
MGM, Universal Pictures
Orson Welles
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Orson Welles Welles' first feature-length onscreen role was as a Keystone Кор his own film Too Much Johnson. His final appearance was in Someone to Love, released nearly two full years after his death. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/3/879003.jpg)
Mercury Theater, Castle Hill Productions Inc.
John Ritter
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode John Ritter Ritter made his TV debut on the Burt Reynolds detective show Dan August, and his last recorded performance was the voice of Great Uncle Stew on Stanley's Dinosaur Round-Up. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/4/879004.jpg)
Everett Collection/Shutterstock,
CBS Television Distribution, Cartoon Pizza,
Heath Ledger
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Heath Ledger The Dark Knight actor got his start as an Orphan Clown in Clowning Around as a child, and was last seen in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus shortly after his untimely passing. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/0/879010.jpg)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lionsgate
Philip Seymour Hoffman
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Philip Seymour Hoffman At his start, Hoffman guest starred in an episode of Law & Order. His final role was as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/3/879013.jpg)
Wolf Entertainment, Lionsgate
Audrey Hepburn
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Audrey Hepburn The celebrated starlet first appeared in a TV movie called Sauce Tartare, and made her final appearance on the silver screen in the 1989 film Always. GRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/1/879001.jpg)
BBC, Universal Pictures
Phil Hartman
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode appily EverAft STUNT ROCK The United a sites Teles let Every Shill . i - Sex - spluse starting HBO System Amit MERTIPI Phil Hartman The comedian's first credited role was as Monique's Assistant in a film called Stunt Rock, and his final appearance was the voice of a game show host for a story in the children's cartoon Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/8/879008.jpg)
Columbia TriStar Television, Interamar, Home Box Office
Michael Clarke Duncan
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Michael Clarke Duncan Duncan got his start as a guest role on the TV show Renegade, with his final role as a coach on the boxing film The Challenger. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/2/879002.jpg)
Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Wishing Well Pictures
Aaliyah
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Aaliyah The singer made her film debut in Romeo Must Die, and made her last howing as the Queen of the Damned. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/6/879006.jpg)
Warner Bros.
John Candy
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode John Candy Candy first played superhero character Weatherman on Canadian children's TV show Cucumber, and his final appearance was in the political comedy Canadian Bacon. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/2/879012.jpg)
TVO, MGM
Chadwick Boseman
![Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Chadwick Boseman Boseman's final performance was voicing T'Challa in Marvel's What If...? animated series, but his first principal on screen role was a character on the soap opera All My Children, a role in which he was replaced by his Black Panther co-star Michael В. Jordan. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/0/879000.jpg)
ABC, Marvel Studios