NCIS has time and again proven that the line of work it highlights is dangerous by killing off memorable characters, but these NCIS franchise characters died way too soon. Since the franchise deals with the investigative service of the military solving murders and uncovering terrorist plots, the main characters are always in the line of fire.
NCIS began its shocking tradition of killing off beloved characters when Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander) was shot by an assassin in season 2 of the flagship series. That death hit fans hard, but it also ushered in a new era for the show, bringing in Ziva David (Cote de Pablo).
NCIS also did not completely abandon Agent Todd following her death. Her family members had guest-starring appearances, she made appearances as a hallucination or in flashbacks, and the story was set up in a way that fans, in the long term, did not feel like she left the series way too soon.
These NCIS characters, however, could have used more screen time before the writers had them meet the Grim Reaper.
Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry)
NCIS
who worked with NCIS on special cases, and Clayton Reeves’ death is one that still upsets fans years later.
Reeves was killed while attempting to protect Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) from what seemed like an ordinary mugging. It later turned out that Abby had been specifically targeted, and Reeves was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Reeves’ death was used as a way to write Abby out of the series when Perrette decided to leave NCIS, and that is why this death is unfortunate. Abby deciding to leave in his honor feels like it overshadows his death, and it’s unfortunate since the audience was just getting to know Reeves better.
Michelle Hanna (Aunjanue Ellis)
NCIS: LA
Michelle Hanna was the wife of NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna (LL Cool J). Though she was part of the show for several seasons, she only appeared in a handful of episodes, and the show only just began to delve into her backstory when she was killed.
Michelle was not just the wife of an NCIS agent, but a former member of the military and the CIA herself. She actually teams up with her husband and his fellow agents on missions in her few appearances in the show.
The character only appeared in seven episodes across eight seasons before she was kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip to get a prisoner released by NCIS. She died while being held in a freezer, and then, her body was taken with the threat of dismembering her.
Michelle’s death was solely used to push Sam into reckless behavior while he was trying to complete a mission. Her death also made NCIS: LA’s storylines a little less believable moving forward because it meant Sam was the sole caregiver for their children, but he was still gone for long stretches of time on undercover work.
The audience would have much rather seen Michelle stick around, reconciling her past undercover work with her time as a mother in a longer arc.
Ned Dorneget (Matt Jones)
NCIS
Ned Dorneget only appeared in a handful of episodes across three seasons, starting out as a probationary agent who specialized in cyber crimes, and becoming a full-fledged agent right before his death.
Dorneget had the misfortune of being too close to the blast zone of a bomb after he and Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray) evacuated a hotel. He died from his injuries due to the blast.
When fans debate characters they wish did not have to die in the show, Dorneget is often one of the first mentioned because his character was fun. He was often the comic relief and on the receiving end of Tony’s (Michael Weatherly) zingers.
While it’s true he left NCIS too soon, he also left because Jones asked to be killed off. At the time, Jones was simply a recurring actor who was continuing to audition for and film other pilots while appearing on NCIS. He booked the sitcom Mom before his last appearance on NCIS, and according to Jones, he asked producer Gary Glasberg to kill the character.
In 2024, when speaking about the conversation on Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch podcast, he revealed in hindsight that it was a “stupid idea.” It would have been possible for the series to simply write him out temporarily and bring him back from time to time.
Chris LaSalle (Lucas Black)
NCIS: New Orleans
NCIS: New Orleans was not on as long as the first NCIS spinoff series, NCIS: Los Angeles, but it featured quite a few fan-favorite characters. One of those is Chris LaSalle.
Agent LaSalle was part of NCIS: New Orleans starting in the first episode. Because the series had a lot of cast turnover compared to the other NCIS series on at the same time, it was important to the fans to see his character have an interesting arc.
Unfortunately, six seasons into the show, he was killed off while trying to get revenge for his own brother’s death. It was not how the fans wanted to see the character leave the show, since he had already had so much hardship in the short time the show ran.
Of course, this particular character leaving was not a result of the writers choosing to write LaSalle out. Instead, Lucas Black requested to leave the show since the long hours were causing him to miss time with his wife and kids. When Black made the request, the writers opted to find a way to permanently write out the character.
NCIS: New Orleans only lasted one more season.
Michelle Lee (Liza Lapira)
NCIS
NCIS Agent Michelle Lee was both a lawyer and a field agent for NCIS. She only appeared in a handful of episodes across three seasons of the show, first as a love interest for Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), then as a member of the new major case team under Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon).
Agent Lee was also a mole.
Lee, however, was only a mole, passing information to her handler, because a family member was in danger from them. Shows like NCIS often work with characters in that vein to rehabilitate them or use whatever information they have to their advantage. That was not the case for Agent Lee.
Instead, she was killed in a standoff when Gibbs had to literally shoot through her to take out her handler. While she gave Gibbs the okay, the audience has never entirely been okay with it.
The NCIS Elite Team (Joseph Lee Anderson, Jake Allyn, Vivian Lamolli)
NCIS: Hawai’i
NCIS: Hawai’i has been the shortest lived NCIS spinoff series so far. The series was canceled after only three seasons, and the season 3 finale saw a lot of carnage for NCIS agents.
The NCIS Elite Team was part of that carnage. The team was introduced in the series as the kind of NCIS team that can get into places other agents cannot. Sam Hanna, from the NCIS: Los Angeles series, lead a team of rotating agents in the field, which brought him to Hawai’i multiple times.
Outside of Sam, however, the three newest members of his team were all killed in the series finale of NCIS: Hawai’i, killed thanks to a poison that Sam could not get the antidote for in time.
This death was particularly tragic for the series because his new team members were only in two episodes of the series. They had barely been introduced to the audience before they were all killed, poisoned right in front of Sam.
The idea of the team still exists in the NCIS universe as Katrina Law’s Jessica Knight was invited to be a part of the team, but it is a pity to see the entire new team killed in one fell swoop, just as CBS canceled the series ahead of its time.
Paula Cassidy (Jessica Steen)
NCIS
Paula Cassidy was not a main cast member on NCIS, but she was a fan favorite. An NCIS agent who specialized in interrogation, she periodically appeared in the show when the major case team needed her assistance – or when she needed them.
She appeared in a handful of episodes across four seasons of the show, and she and Tony had a flirtatious friendship, though nothing ever came of it. Paula’s last appearance came in an episode that involved her entire team being killed before she sacrificed herself to stop anyone else from dying.
Fans criticized the way she went out, wishing that they would have been able to see her deal with the fallout from the death of her team, but in reality, Jessica Steen had just committed to the Canadian drama Heartland at the time.
Though she has continued to guest star in other shows and do movies in between seasons, she likely could not commit to more NCIS in 2007, when her character was killed off and Heartland premiered.
Henry Rayner-Hunt (James D’Arcy)
NCIS: Tony & Ziva
In the NCIS spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva, Henry is one of the first friends that Tony makes in Europe. Their closeness is highlighted in flashbacks. Henry is even the person who hosts Tali’s seventh birthday party for Tony and Ziva, since his and Tali’s birthdays are so close to one another.
It’s a sweet friendship that is maligned when Ziva believes that Henry is the one setting Tony and her up for a series of crimes across Europe. Henry appears in the first five episodes of the series as the events unfold.
Just as Ziva and Tony unravel the mystery of who is actually behind the crimes and decide to trust Henry again, he is murdered in cold blood by the real villain of the series. The audience barely has time to get to know him, and it undercuts his character journey alongside Tony.
Henry’s murder is more shocking than others in the NCIS franchise because, in the other cases of characters killed off too soon, at least they were able to appear in a handful of episodes across multiple seasons.
