You may remember, a little while ago, that Kit Harington was named “the most likely actor of all time to appear in a scene where his character is killed”, based on the sheer density of onscreen deaths he’s enjoyed so far in his career. It’s a good title to have, especially since he gets to chose how much he embraces it. If Harrington grows weary of being the guy who always gets stabbed in stuff, he can simply refuse to take roles where his character dies. But, if he leans into it, he can exploit his perma-dead status by making sure that he dies more than any other actor in history.

That last one is a hell of a risk, though. Because if Kit Harington wants to be the most-killed actor in history, he’ll have to get past Danny Trejo.

A new survey by Buzz Bingo has revealed that Trejo has died a whopping 65 times on film. His first was in 1987’s Death Wish 4, where he was blown up by an exploding wine bottle, and then he was off to the races. In Gun he was shot by 50 Cent. In Zombie Hunter he was decapitated by a monster zombie. In Once Upon a Time in Mexico he was garroted by Willem Dafoe. In Eyeborgs he was drilled through the head by a cyborg. He’s been killed by topless prostitutes on two separate occasions, in Sex Crimes and House of the Rising Sun. He’s been stabbed by Andy Dick, tortured by Mischa Barton and put out of his misery by Robert De Niro.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Not just a hack … Christopher Lee. Photograph: Ronald Grant

Until quite recently the actor who’d died the most was Christopher Lee, who first died in 1948 and kept dying until 2011. Lee was an absolute connoisseur at being murdered. He’d died by broadsword in The Dark Avenger, by poison dart in Beyond Mombassa, by acid in Corridors of Blood, by spontaneous combustion in Hercules in the Haunted World. He was drawn and quartered in The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism. He was frozen into a diamond in Arabian Adventure. He was burned in a spell in Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf. It went on and on, only stopping when Lee himself died, (which didn’t count towards his total).

For years, people assumed that Lee would for ever hold the title, because he played Dracula an awful lot, and a Dracula film isn’t a Dracula film unless Dracula dies at the end. But that would be to discount Trejo’s absolute determination to rob him of his crown, because the sheer quantity of deaths that Trejo has signed up for in recent years is staggering.

Yes, 2019 was quite light on the old death front for him, since he only died once (shot in the head, 3 From Hell), but prior to that the man was a veritable murder magnet. In 2018 he died twice (beaten to death, stabbed through the heart). In 2017 he died three times (shot twice, decapitated once). In 2016 he died four times (shot twice, stabbed once, one car crash). In 2015 – which marked the high point of his death career – he died a whopping eight times (shot twice, stabbed twice, eaten by freakish creatures twice, tortured once and beaten once).

How on Earth can Kit Harington hope to compete with a monster of death like Danny Trejo? Harington has only died in five films (even though that made him “most likely to die” at 62.5% of his appearances). To even draw level, he’ll have to make 60 more films and make sure that he dies in every single one of them. He’s already 33. Even at a rate of two onscreen deaths a year, he will be in his mid-60s by the time he’s even drawn level with Trejo. No time off. No nice holidays. No experimental arthouse side projects where he makes it all the way to the end credits. It’s a slog. It sounds terrible. Kit Harington should just admit defeat and give up now. Danny Trejo is unstoppable. When a man walks into a room with Danny Trejo, only one man walks out. And that man is never Danny Trejo.