And now his watch is ended. Native Northern Ireland actor J.J. Murphy has passed away, only four days into filming the fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones. According to the Belfast Telegraph, Ser Denys Mallister (as was his character on the series), collapsed and died on Friday. He was 86 years old.
The series’ executive producers, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff released a joint statement in regards to the passing: “We will not be recasting J.J. Murphy. He was a lovely man, and the best Denys Mallister we could have hoped for. And now his watch is ended.”
Murphy reportedly had more scenes to film in the coming week as his character Ser Denys Mallister, the oldest member of the Night’s Watch. The man commanded the Shadow Tower for thirty-three years and was uncle of Lord Jason Mallister, a renowned tourney knight and bannerman loyal to House Tully. It has been reported that Murphy had a lot of pride in being cast and acting in the series.
Outside of his forthcoming work on Thrones, Murphy also had a role as an elder townsmen in the upcoming feature film Dracula Untold starring Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, and Samantha Barks in addition to fellow actors from the Realm Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) and Art Parkinson (Rickon “Where’s Rickon?” Stark).
Murphy also acted in several notable films, including Angela’s Ashes and the 1984 Helen Mirren/Joe Lynch film, Cal. Additionally, he was a noted actor at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast alongside the likes of Liam Neeson and another Thrones co-star, Ciaran Hinds (Mance Rayder).
Maester Aemon is the oldest od the nights watch, Denys Mallister the second oldest!!
George RR Martin claims yet another life…
Dammit, GRRM!
You guys should try knowing what you’re talking about. It is Night’s watch. The time, not occupation.
Bless his soul
Wow. Really? An article about a man who has died while making a wonderful show, and all you guys can do is point out typos? Congratulations on the wonderfully fulfilling lives you must lead.
Except they’re wrong and the article got it right lol
Knight* not night.
Dumbass it is Night’s Watch, not Knight’s
Authors correct their work when errors are pointed out, presumably it was incorrect before.Try not being a douche.
NIGHT’s not knight’s. They are the Night’s Watch.
Heads up: third paragraph, line four, word five. I’ll delete this when it is corrected. Just looking out.
I like that you made it a game lol.
A game…..of thr—–words. >_>
I think I had spotted the same error, but different devices / browsers will format the text differently, so your word search might not work out. How about “One silent letter can make all the difference”?