Airing for roughly fifteen years, ER saw the death and abrupt exits of many beloved characters, most notably Dr. Mark Greene in season 8 – but why did actor Anthony Edwards leave ER? Created by physician and sci-fi novelist Michael Crichton (creator of Jurassic Park and Westworld), ER made its debut on NBC in 1994, achieving overwhelming success with a total of 331 episodes over the course of 15 seasons before ending in 2009, making it the second-longest-running medical drama behind Grey’s Anatomy. Like Grey’s Anatomy, many cast members came and went over the course of the long-running series, but Dr. Mark Greene was there for more than half of the show’s run.
Played by Anthony Edwards, the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning star of Top Gun and Revenge of the Nerds, Dr. Greene was one of ER‘s most inherently likable leading men, as well as, arguably, the main protagonist through ER season 8. From ER‘s pilot episode, which started with Dr. Greene tending to his drunk friend Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney) while also overseeing a dozen critically injured patients, to his final moments in ER season 8, Dr. Greene consistently remained both a good friend and an authority figure to his fellow medical team. Although Dr. Mark Greene’s ER death came as a massive blow for the other characters and for audiences, it was planned for Anthony Edwards to leave ER long ahead of time.
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What Happened To Dr. Greene In ER
Anthony Edward’s Character Died Of A Brain Tumor
In a fittingly tragic death, Dr. Mark Greene died from a brain tumor in ER season 8, episode 21, “On The Beach.” After an extended battle with brain cancer that includes several ups and downs, Dr. Greene decided to spend his last few months rebuilding relationships with his family and visited Hawaii with his daughter, Rachel (Halle Hirsch). While there, the two shared a touching moment over Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” and Greene passed in his sleep, marking the official Anthony Edwards ER departure.
Why ER Killed Off Dr. Greene
The Tragic Death Was Planned Well In Advance
A year prior to Dr. Greene’s departure from ER in 2002, Edwards expressed to the Associated Press his desire to step away from the role, specifically referencing his family, saying they had spent eight years “working around [his] schedule.” Essentially, married with three daughters and one son, Edwards wanted to spend more time being there for his family while leaving open the possibility for other career opportunities. To honor his wishes, the ER show writers at NBC gave Dr. Greene the dramatically tragic exit his character deserved.
It’s been eight years of my family working around my schedule. It’s been a long time playing Dr. Greene.
Following his leave from ER, Edwards mostly spent time with his family. However, he also took on a few one-offs and minor roles in various TV series, allowing him to continue his career without the hefty commitment that ER needed.
What Anthony Edwards Did After Leaving ER
The Death Of Dr. Greene Didn’t Kill His Career
It would be a year after leaving ER that Edwards appeared in the movie Motherhood with Uma Thurman. The 2009 movie wasn’t particularly well-received, but a much shorter shooting schedule meant that Edwards was free to spend time with his family. It wouldn’t be until 2013 that Edwards would return to a TV series. He played Hank Galliston in the show Zero Hour, which sought to capture the same audience as a show like LOST with a central mystery and flashbacks that slowly unraveled the conspiracy at the center. The conspiracy drama was canceled after 13 episodes.
Following Zero Hour, Edwards largely kept to guest starring roles and voice-over work, voicing Echo in Planes and appearing in several different television shows. Playing Judge Stanley Weisberg in the miniseries Law & Order True Crime and Mars Harper in Designated Survivor were larger commitments for him as he appeared in multiple episodes of both shows. He even directed the 2016 comedy My Dead Boyfriend, starring Heather Graham, Katherine Moennig, and Scott Michael Foster.
2022 brought more TV work for Edwards. The actor appeared in the miniseries Inventing Anna and WeCrashed in major roles. He also joined The Walking Dead universe as Dr. Charles Everett in Tales Of The Walking Dead.
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How ER Brought Back Mark Greene In Season 15
Anthony Edwards Reprised His Iconic Role In A Flashback Sequence
Since the Anthony Edwards ER exit, people wondered if the character would pop back up in the series either via flashback or Grey’s Anatomy’s Meredith Grey hallucination-type scenario. The ER faithful finally had their wishes granted when the good doctor made a short appearance during ER‘s 15th season. In season 15, episode 7, “Heal Thyself,” Dr. Catherine Banfield (Angela Bassett) faced difficulties when a grievously ill child is brought into the E.R.
When all seemed lost, a flashback helped her to not only diagnose the child but also confront her problems. The flashback included a moment with Dr. Greene, so Anthony Edwards graced the hospital with his presence one final time after Mark Green’s ER death. The episode marked the final appearance of Dr. Mark Greene in the series, as well as that of Dr. Robert Romano (Paul McCrane) who was killed off in ER season 10.
It’s better that Anthony Edwards’ character was brought back in flashback form for ER‘s final season rather than finding a contrived reason for him to still be alive. As the only original cast member to die in the series, Dr. Greene certainly remains one of ER‘s most cherished characters. He may now be lower-key in the world of acting, but with him playing both Dr. Greene in ER and Goose in Top Gun, Anthony Edwards has had two of the most impactful and heartbreaking on-screen deaths ever on both the small and big screen. Though many ER fans are still reeling from Dr. Greene’s death years later, it’s nice to know that the character’s sad ending was a fresh new beginning for Edwards.
How Anthony Edwards Reflects On Dr. Mark Greene’s ER Death
The Actor Recognizes The Significance Of The Moment For Viewers
More than 15 years after filming Mark Greene’s ER death scene, Anthony Edwards reflected on leaving the series. He spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about the experience of leaving the character behind. Unlike a lot of TV deaths, the decision wasn’t just at the hands of the writers who decided to remove an original character from the series. It was Edward’s decision to leave ER, and the writers knew about it almost two years before Mark Greene’s death happened.
[The writers] had two years to tell the story of someone going through this life transition. The first year was the medical part of it… and then the second year was really the emotional journey of someone transitioning. By the time we got to that goodbye, it was a goodbye they had been setting up for two years.
That length of time preparing the audience to say their farewells to ER’s Mark Greene is only part of the reason the character loss hit so hard. Edwards revealed that many fans who have spoken about the impact of losing Dr. Greene understood his decision to spend his last days in Hawaii with his family.
Edwards explained that Greene’s death was relatable for so many members of the audience. While they might not have relocated to a new state for the experience, they had lost loved ones and talked to Edwards about it. For Edwards, Mark Greene’s ER death did exactly what entertainment is supposed to do when it brings in realistic situations. He told Yahoo, “It’s why we listen to music or why we watch TV shows… we still want to be told a story and have it relate somehow to our lives.”
Other Medical Shows That Brought Characters Back After Their Deaths
Anthony Edwards Reprising The Role Of A Deceased Character Isn’t An Isolated Incident
Anthony Edwards returning to ER to play Dr. Greene one final time in the season 15 flashback was undeniably a huge moment for longstanding fans of the show, especially when considering just how emotional and impactful his death scene was. While actors returning to play dead characters isn’t common (outside of fake deaths, at least), it does seem 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 a handful of medical drama actors who’ve had opportunities to play their characters even after they’ve been killed off.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, one medical drama that frequently finds ways for deceased characters to briefly return is ER‘s rival for best medical drama ever made, Grey’s Anatomy. Multiple Grey’s Anatomy actors have returned to briefly reprise their roles of dead characters. Usually, this is because of hallucinations. The most prominent example of actor returns similar to Anthony Edwards in ER came in Grey’s Anatomy season 15, episode 6, “Flowers Grow Out Of My Grave.”
The emotional installment of the long-running ABC medical drama ended with Meredith Grey walking through the hospital, with her introspection triggering several hallucinations of deceased friends and former colleagues. These hallucinations meant Patrick Dempsey returned as Derek Shepherd, T.R. Knight reprised his role as George O’Malley, and Chyler Leigh made another appearance as Lexie Grey.
Grey’s Anatomy repeated these hallucination cameos once again in season 17, when Meredith Grey collapsed from exhaustion on a beach during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dempsey, Knight, and Leigh all returned once more, as did a handful of other characters that had been killed off. These moments was a huge crowd pleaser when it came to the Grey’s Anatomy fandom, though it arguably didn’t have quite the same impact as the ER Dr. Greene flashback that facilitated Anthony Edwards’ return (especially given that it happened more than once).
Outside of Grey’s Anatomy, another show that brought back an actor to play a dead character like Anthony Edwards in ER came in season 8 of the 2004-2012 medical drama House MD. During the final episode of House MD, titled “Everybody Dies”, two main characters who’d shockingly died earlier on in the show made a last-minute appearance. Much like Grey’s Anatomy, this was also due to hallucinations.
Still, fans were still pleased to see Kal Penn return as Kutner and Anne Dudek make a last-minute reappearance as Amber. This didn’t have the same emotional weight as either the Grey’s Anatomy hallucinations or the ER Dr. Greene flashback, but it was appreciated by viewers that House MD took the opportunity to acknowledge earlier events in the series still having emotional weight.
The final notable example comes from the medical comedy Scrubs, and is something of a technicality but worth mentioning. One of the most emotional Scrubs moments was the death of Ben, the brother-in-law and best friend of Dr. Cox, played by Brendan Fraser. The reason this is a technicality is that Ben actually died at the start of the episode, though viewers didn’t find out until the very end.
Cox had been hallucinating Ben for the entirety of season 3’s “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 this isn’t quite a character return, it is an example of a medical show using hallucinations of a dead character to drive the emotional impact of a story. What’s more, it arguably came closer to the emotional impact of the Anthony Edwards ER flashback than many of the Grey’s Anatomy returns, or the killed-off characters reappearing in the House MD finale.
