Top 20 Saddest Grey's Anatomy Character Deaths

#20: Susan Grey

Unlike Meredith’s biological mother, her stepmother is warm, kind, and genuinely caring. But while Ellis at least lasted a few seasons, Susan doesn’t make it past a few episodes. Just as Meredith begins to consider letting Susan into her life, the latter’s death comes out of nowhere. What should have been a routine surgery for a preventable condition takes a devastating turn when complications arise, leaving Susan’s loved ones reeling with her loss. Her death not only shatters all hope of Meredith being welcomed into her father’s family, but it also destroys their relationship for good. Instead of healing old wounds as she’d hoped, Susan’s passing tears the Greys apart beyond repair.

#19: Craig Thomas

If your name isn’t Meredith Grey, chances are Cristina won’t be giving you the time of day. That’s why her connection with Craig Thomas hits hard, as Cristina finds a mentor who recognizes her will and drive. In many ways, they were kindred spirits, as if fate had brought them together at just the right time. Of course, this wouldn’t be “Grey’s Anatomy” if there weren’t a tragedy around the corner. While performing surgery, Craig’s heart gives out, falling right before Cristina’s eyes. His passing doesn’t just end his life – it ends the promise of pushing Cristina to greatness, leaving her and fans with the painful question of what might have been.

#18: Bonnie Crasnoff

Whenever a patient with a cheerful personality arrives at Seattle Grace, you know it’s not going to end well for them. That’s exactly the case with Bonnie and Tom, who are impaled together from a train crash. Even with their predicament, the pair keeps their spirits high, giving us hope that they both might just make it. Spoiler Alert: They don’t. Realizing her injuries are beyond saving, doctors shift their priorities to Tom, making Meredith the only one fighting for Bonnie’s life. It’s a reminder of the hard choices that medical professionals regularly face, even if it means letting one life slip away.

#17: Harold O’Malley

Funny, supportive, and a family man through and through, Mr. O’Malley is just the kind of dad anyone would want. Despite struggling to understand George, Harold does his best to stand by him. Their bond is tested when Harold is diagnosed with cancer, as George desperately fights to save his father. Making Harold’s story so crushing to watch isn’t just his death, but the inevitability behind it. With George at the center of this arc, fans feel every ounce of his grief as Harold’s chances fade away. It hurts to lose someone so easy to love, but through Harold’s death, “Grey’s” reminds us to hold on to the people that matter the most.

#16: Heather Brooks

Happy-go-lucky and naturally vibrant, Heather carried herself with an infectious energy, even if it might have been a bit much for some viewers. But at one point, “Grey’s” became notorious for randomly killing off its main characters, and Heather was one of its unluckiest casualties. By the end of the ninth season, fans were concerned for Richard’s life, but come season 10, it was Heather who bid farewell. Apart from how shocking it is – sorry, Heather – her death feels unnecessarily cruel, especially since she had her whole life ahead of her. She might not have been everyone’s favorite character, but Heather’s sudden death remains one of the show’s darkest twists of fate.

#15: Mary Portman

One of the show’s primary themes is that anything can happen without warning. Fans were relieved when Mary survived the hospital shooting disaster, only to be blindsided by her demise the following season. What should have been a simple hernia repair ends with her husband in mourning. We never learn what went wrong. Instead of a complex disease or a rare illness, Mary dies simply because it was meant to happen. Her death feels so gut-wrenching because of the complete lack of closure behind it. It’s sad, it’s unfair, but all we can do is accept a bitter truth that we’ll never understand.

#14: Dylan Young

At the height of its popularity, the infamous bomb episode became one of “Grey’s Anatomy”’s biggest talking points. Fans were glued to their screens, wondering how Meredith could possibly survive clutching a bomb lodged inside a patient’s chest. The episode keeps us hooked all the way through, and just when we’re about to breathe a sigh of relief, everything blows up – literally, in this case. Bomb Squad leader Dylan, so close to saving the day, is gone in the blink of an eye. Having earned both our trust and respect, Dylan’s sudden and unceremonious demise is all the more painful. Even two decades later, fans continue to remember Dylan as a hero who deserved so much better.

#13: Doc the Dog

If you ever doubted that no one is safe in “Grey’s Anatomy,” the fact that they kill off Meredith’s pet dog proves otherwise. Although he gets on George and Izzie’s nerves, Doc’s sweet and stabilizing presence balances all the chaos surrounding the characters’ lives. He also acts as a quiet comfort between Meredith and Derek as they struggle with Addison’s return. But it wasn’t meant to last, as Doc’s terminal diagnosis forces them to put him down out of mercy. Sure, Denny’s death shortly after steals focus – more on that later – but watching Doc’s final moments is arguably more difficult to watch. Because it’s not just the loss of a pet; it’s an innocent life cut short.

#12: Ellis Grey

As the reason for Meredith’s deepest issues, the fandom still has mixed feelings about Ellis. She may have been a world-famous surgeon, but for Meredith, Ellis was the mother whose love she craved but never earned. As Meredith lies on death’s door, Ellis reaches the end of her own life. But after years of neglect and disapproval, Ellis is present when it matters the most. In a powerful, almost symbolic gesture, she lets go of her own life for Meredith, giving her daughter the strength to go on. But while it’s cathartic to watch, the moment is painfully brief. She may have gained a measure of closure, but Ellis’s death leaves Meredith without the reconciliation she always wanted.

#11: Thatcher Grey

In an ironic twist, the daughter Thatcher abandoned is the only person by his side for the end of his life. Despite years of hurt and heartbreak, Meredith chooses compassion over bitterness. Instead of airing out all her grievances, she decides to make peace with Thatcher in his time of dying. Though it doesn’t erase his failures as a father, the scene does show him for who he truly is: a man haunted by mistakes he could never take back. Easing his pain with stories of the grandchildren he never knew, Meredith helps Thatcher move on. Ultimately, it isn’t his death that stings the most, but the lifetime of memories that the two never got to share.

#10: Adele Webber

We might not have seen this death on screen, but that didn’t lessen its impact. Adele Webber’s battle with Alzeheimers was already a devastating, and doomed, process. As she gradually lost control over her memories, her husband Richard’s love and commitment could anchor her at first. Eventually, though, the disease was too far gone. By the time Adele finally succumbed to a heart attack, we had been watching her slip away for a long time. In some ways, her slow decline was more painful than her death itself, especially as we saw the toll it took on both Adele and Richard. But that doesn’t mean we’ll ever hear “My Funny Valentine” again without getting choked up.

#9: Diane Pierce

This is another death that we all knew was probably inevitable. The doctors of Seattle Grace fought hard against Diane’s breast cancer, but all of their best efforts were no match for its rapid spread. In the end, it was Diane herself who made the decision to accept her fate. True to her strength of spirit, Diane still tried to make the most of the time left to her. Especially when it came to her daughter, Maggie. Their final scene together in the hospital really hammers home how great her loss will be for the people she leaves behind. Though Diane’s ending is peaceful, Maggie’s reaction is heartbreaking to witness.

#8: Samuel Norbert Avery

Losing a parent is always difficult, but there is no agony like that of a parent losing their child. While April and Jackson happily anticipated the birth of their baby, they discovered that he was already suffering a rare genetic disorder. Though they tried to remain optimistic, they would eventually receive the devastating news that their son’s condition would be fatal. With only sad options available to them, the couple made the decision to induce labor early so that they could at least meet their son. The family had only moments together before they lost the baby they named Samuel. We mourned with April and Jackson as a day that should have been one of their happiest became the most tragic.

#7: Henry Burton

When Teddy married the chronically ill Henry to give him insurance, it was a gesture of kindness, but not passion. Nevertheless, we saw the two actually fall in love over the course of Henry’s time on the show. The sweet relationship was cut short, however, when Henry went back into the hospital for another surgery. Despite the best efforts on the team, they are ultimately unable to save him. Though her friends initially hid his death from Teddy in order to keep her mind on her own procedure, she eventually had to find out the truth. Watching the usually cool and collected Teddy break down over Henry’s body was nothing short of gutting.

#6: Denny Duquette

The charming Denny Duquette was a favorite patient of both the characters onscreen and the audience watching. He shared a special connection with Izzie Stevens though. After suffering congestive heart failure and surviving a transplant, Denny was ready to put his new heart to use when he unexpectedly proposed to Izzie. It wasn’t to be though. After everything he had been through, Denny died of a blood clot just hours after it seemed like he might be out of the woods. Izzie’s utter devastation at his sudden loss remains one of the most memorable scenes in the show’s history. We were all left heartbroken over what could have been.

#5: Andrew DeLuca

Like so many of the most unfortunate deaths on Grey’s Anatomy, this one completely blindsided us. Though Andrew DeLuca was a great doctor, he could sometimes make unwise decisions, and trying to handle a sex trafficker without the help of the police definitely qualifies. Opal badly wounded Andrew and he was rushed back to the hospital for surgery. Though it initially seemed like he would recover, he coded and never woke up again. The character did get a little bit more closure in his exit than some others have. Somehow, though, the sendoff only makes the whole thing harder. For Andrew’s friends on screen and his fans off it, this shock was hard to absorb.

#4: Lexie Gray

Sometimes you don’t know a thing until it’s too late. Watching Meredith and her half sister develop their relationship was compelling, but it was Lexie’s romance with Mark Sloan that really hooked us on this character. Which is why the plane crash that abruptly ended her life remains such a painful stand out event in the series. Though Lexie survived the initial wreckage of the plane, it became clear that she was fatally injured. Finally aware of his feelings for her, Mark refused to accept that fact. As the clock wound down on her time, Mark dreamed a future with Lexie that we knew they would never get to have. Realizing how much better they deserved just twists the knife in deeper.

#3: Mark Sloan

And the hits just kept on coming. Though Mark appeared to have survived the crash with only a crushing heartbreak to show for it, we would soon learn that his heart was in much more physical distress as a result of his injuries. Though he seemed at peace with following Lexie, we still believed that the show couldn’t be so cruel. Oh we of little faith. The next season would open with the revelation that he’d since slipped into a coma. Eventually, the difficult decision was made to remove him from life support. Mark’s death would have been sad no matter what, but it’s the one-two punch of losing him and Lexie, plus the tease that he might survive that really wrecked us.

#2: George O’Malley

When a John Doe patient was delivered to the ER, what little was known about him made it clear he was a hero. Sad, but business as usual at Seattle Grace. That is until Meredith made a terrible discovery. As one of the original newbie doctors who we started the series with, it had been a bittersweet farewell when George O’Malley decided to leave to become an Army trauma surgeon. To discover that he had met such a sudden and brutal fate was truly shocking. George was the kind of character you wanted to see succeed; nothing could have prepared us for how unfair his loss truly was.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Elena Bailey

A Heartbreaking Parallel of the Losses Endured During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Olive Warner

She May Have Accepted Her Fate, But We Certainly Didn’t

Kyle Diaz

Another Doctor-Patient Romance Destined For Tragedy

#1: Derek Shepherd

If there was one thing we thought we were sure of it was that Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd were meant to be. The last thing we ever expected was to have Doctor McDreamy stolen from us like he was. Unfortunately, Derek’s instinct to help those in need ended up putting him on a literal collision course with destiny. Still, as bad as it looked, his continued internal monologue gave us hope that things would be okay. Ultimately, Meredith was the one who had to make the impossible call to terminate life support. On a series that never shies from tragedy, nothing will ever quite reach the devastating low of watching Meredith’s final goodbye to her soulmate.

Are there any other “Grey’s” deaths that you can think of? Let us know in the comments.