On the air for about fifteen years, Emergency Room saw the deaths and abrupt departures of many beloved characters, most notably Dr. Mark Greene in season 8 – but why did actor Anthony Edwards leave Emergency Room? Created by doctor and science fiction novelist Michael Crichton (creator of Jurassic Park and Western World), Emergency Room premiered on NBC in 1994, achieving overwhelming success with a total of 331 episodes over 15 seasons before ending in 2009, becoming the second longest-running medical drama behind Grey’s Anatomy. As Grey’s AnatomyMany cast members came and went throughout the long-running series, but Dr. Mark Greene was there for more than half the show.
Played by Anthony Edwards, the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning star of Superior weapon and Revenge of the NerdsDr. Greene was one of the Emergency Roomthe most inherently likable protagonists, as well as arguably the main protagonist through Emergency Room season 8. Emergency RoomThe pilot episode, which began with Dr. Greene caring for his drunken friend, Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney), while also supervising a dozen seriously injured patients, until his final moments in Emergency Room In Season 8, Dr. Greene has consistently remained a good friend and authority figure to his medical team. Although Dr. Mark Greene Emergency Room death was a huge blow to the other characters and the audience, it was planned for Anthony Edwards to leave Emergency Room long before time.
What Happened to Dr. Greene in the ER
Anthony Edward’s character died of a brain tumor
In a suitably tragic death, Dr. Mark Greene died of a brain tumor in Emergency Room Season 8, Episode 21“On the beach.” After a long battle with brain cancer that included several ups and downs, Dr. Greene decided to spend his final months rebuilding relationships with his family and visited Hawaii with his daughter, Rachel (Halle Hirsch). While there, the two shared a touching moment to Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” and Greene passed away in her sleep, marking Officer Anthony Edwards Emergency Room match.
Why did ER kill Dr.
The tragic death was planned well in advance
A year before Dr. Greene’s departure from Emergency Room in 2002, Edwards expressed to the Associated Press his desire to step away from the role, specifically referring to his family, saying they spent eight years”working there [his] to schedule.” Essentially married, with three daughters and a son, Edwards wanted to spend more time with his family leaving open the possibility for other career opportunities. To honor your wishes, the Emergency Room the NBC writers gave Dr. Greene the dramatically tragic exit his character deserved.
It has been eight years that my family has worked around my schedule. I’ve been playing Dr. Greene for a long time now.
After your license Emergency RoomEdwards mainly spent time with his family. However, he also took on some unique and supporting roles in several TV series, which allowed him to continue his career without the major commitment that Emergency Room necessary.
What Anthony Edwards did after leaving the emergency room
Dr. Greene’s Death Didn’t Kill His Career
It would be a year after leaving Emergency Room that Edwards appeared in the film Maternity with Uma Thurman. The 2009 film wasn’t particularly well-received, but a much shorter filming schedule meant Edwards was free to spend more time with his family. It wasn’t until 2013 that Edwards would return to a TV series. He played Hank Galliston on the show Zero Hourthat sought to capture the same audience as a program like LOST with a central mystery and flashbacks that slowly unraveled the central conspiracy. The conspiracy drama was canceled after 13 episodes.
Following Zero Hour, Edwards has largely maintained guest starring roles and voice acting work, voicing Echo in Airplanes and appearing on several different television shows. Playing Judge Stanley Weisberg in the miniseries Law and Order, True Crime and Mars Harper in Designated Survivor these were bigger commitments for him, as he appeared in several episodes of both shows. He even directed the 2016 comedy My dead boyfriendstarring Heather Graham, Katherine Moennig and Scott Michael Foster.
2022 brought more TV work for Edwards. The actor appeared in the miniseries Inventing Anna and We crash in important roles. He also joined Undead universe as Dr. Charles Everett in Tales from The Walking Dead.
How ER brought Mark Greene back in Season 15
Anthony Edwards reprized his iconic role in a flashback sequence
Since Anthony Edwards Emergency Room exit, people wondered if the character would return in the series via flashback or Grey’s Anatomy Meredith Gray hallucination type scenario. THE Emergency Room faithful finally had their wishes granted when the good doctor made a brief appearance during Emergency Room15th season. In Season 15, Episode 7, ‘Heal Thyself,’ Dr. Catherine Banfield (Angela Bassett) faced difficulties when a seriously ill child is brought to the emergency room
When all seemed lost, a flashback helped her not only diagnose the child, but also face her problems. The flashback included a moment with Dr. Greene, then Anthony Edwards graced the hospital with his presence one last time after Mark Green’s death. Emergency Room death. The episode marked Dr. Mark Greene’s final appearance on the series, as well as that of Dr. Emergency Room season 10.
It’s better that Anthony Edwards’ character was brought back in flashback form for Emergency Roomfinal season, rather than finding a contrived reason why he’s still alive. As the only original cast member to die on the series, Dr. Greene certainly remains one of the Emergency Roommost beloved characters. He may now keep a low profile in the acting world, but with him playing Dr. Greene in Emergency Room and Goose in Superior weaponAnthony Edwards had two of the most impactful and heartbreaking deaths of all time, both on the small and big screen. Although many Emergency Room fans are still reeling from Dr. Greene’s death years later, it’s good to know that the character’s sad ending was a new beginning for Edwards.
How Anthony Edwards Reflects on Dr. Mark Greene’s Emergency Room Death
The actor recognizes the significance of the moment for viewers
More than 15 years after the filming of Mark Greene Emergency Room death scene, Anthony Edwards reflected on leaving the series. He spoke to Yahoo Entertainment about the experience of leaving the character behind. Unlike many deaths on TV, the decision was not solely in the hands of the writers who decided to remove an original character from the series. It was Edward’s decision to leave Emergency Roomand the writers knew this almost two years before Mark Greene’s death occurred.
[The writers] I had two years to tell the story of someone who was going through this life transition. The first year was the medical part… and then the second year was really the emotional journey of someone in transition. When we got to the goodbye, it was a goodbye they had been planning for two years.
This period of time preparing the audience to say goodbye to Emergency rooms Mark Greene is just part of the reason the character loss hit so hard. Edwards revealed that many fans who spoke out about the impact of Dr. Greene’s loss understood his decision to spend his final days in Hawaii with his family.
Edwards explained that Greene’s death was understandable to many members of the public. While they may not have moved to a new state to experience it, they have lost loved ones and talked to Edwards about it. For Edwards, Mark Greene Emergency Room death did exactly what entertainment should do when bringing realistic situations. He said Yahoo“This is why we listen to music or watch TV shows… we still want a story to be told and for it to relate in some way to our lives.”
Other medical shows that brought characters back after their deaths
Anthony Edwards reprising the role of a deceased character is not an isolated incident
Anthony Edwards returning to Emergency Room Playing Dr. Greene for the final time in Season 15’s flashback was undeniably a big moment for longtime fans of the series, especially when considering how emotional and impactful his death scene was. While actors returning to play dead characters isn’t common (aside from fake deaths, at least), it seems to be something of a staple of medical dramas. While the narrative tactic hasn’t been used so often that it’s become a trope, it’s also worth noting that Anthony Edwards is one of the few medical drama actors who has had the opportunity to play their characters even after they’ve been killed off. .
Unsurprisingly, a medical drama that frequently finds ways for deceased characters to return briefly is Emergency Roomrival for best medical drama ever made, Grey’s Anatomy. Multiple Grey’s Anatomy the actors returned to briefly reprise their roles as dead characters. This is usually due to hallucinations. The most prominent example of actor returns similar to Anthony Edwards in Emergency Room entered Grey’s Anatomy season 15, episode 6, ‘Flowers Grow Out Of My Grave’.
The gripping installment of ABC’s long-running medical drama ended with Meredith Gray walking through the hospital, her introspection triggering several hallucinations of deceased friends and former colleagues. These hallucinations meant that Patrick Dempsey returned as Derek Shepherd, TR Knight reprized his role as George O’Malley and Chyler Leigh made another appearance as Lexie Gray.
Grey’s Anatomy repeated these hallucinations once again in season 17, when Meredith Gray passed out from exhaustion on a beach during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dempsey, Knight, and Leigh returned once again, as did a few other characters who were killed off. These moments pleased everyone a lot when it came to the Grey’s Anatomy fandom, although it arguably hasn’t had the same impact as the Emergency Room Flashback to Dr. Greene that facilitated Anthony Edwards’ return (especially considering this happened more than once).
Out of Grey’s Anatomy, another show that brought back an actor to play a dead character like Anthony Edwards in Emergency Room came in the medical drama’s 8th season from 2004-2012 Casa MD. During the final episode of MD House, titled “Everybody Dies”, two main characters who shockingly died earlier in the show made a last-minute appearance. Very similar Grey’s Anatomy, this was also due to hallucinations.
Even so, fans were still pleased to see the return of Kal Penn when Kutner and Anne Dudek reappeared at the last minute as Amber. This did not have the same emotional weight as the Grey’s Anatomy hallucinations or Emergency Room Dr. Greene’s flashback, but was appreciated by viewers who Casa MD took the opportunity to acknowledge that previous events in the series still have emotional weight.
The last notable example comes from the medical comedy Rub, and it’s a technicality, but it’s worth mentioning. One of the most exciting Rub moments was the death of Ben, Dr. Cox’s brother-in-law and best friend, played by Brendan Fraser. The reason this is a technicality is that Ben actually died at the beginning of the episode, although viewers didn’t find out until the end.
Cox had been hallucinating Ben throughout the third season of “My Screw Up,” and it wasn’t until the last scene, when he realized he was at Ben’s funeral, that he (and viewers) realized the truth. While it’s not exactly a character’s return, it’s an example of a medical show using hallucinations of a dead character to drive the emotional impact of a story. What’s more, it undoubtedly came closer to the emotional impact of Anthony Edwards Emergency Room flashback than many of Grey’s Anatomy returns, or dead characters reappearing in the Casa MD end.