This probably won't come as any great surprise to anyone, but Sean Bean is getting pretty damn sick of being killed off in films and on the telly.

According to a recent interview, the Sheffield-born star has even turned down work if he finds out that his character kicks the bucket.

Who can blame him, to be fair? As every actor will tell you, it ain't nice to be typecast. That probably counts for double if the 'type' you're being cast as is someone who - let's say - falls off the side of a satellite, or gets his head violently hacked off, or is turned into a gigantic pin cushion.

Those are, of course, references to Bean's famous deaths in GoldenEye, Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings respectively.

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Poor old Boromir... Credit: New Line Cinema

In fact, Bean has been bumped off a grand total of 25 times across his long and storied career. Now, he's sick of it.

He told The Sun: "I've turned down stuff. I've said, 'They know my character's going to die because I'm in it!'

"I just had to cut that out and start surviving, otherwise it was all a bit predictable.

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"I did do one job and they said, 'We're going to kill you', and I was like, 'Oh no!' and then they said, 'Well, can we injure you badly?' and I was like, 'OK, so long as I stay alive this time'.

"I've played a lot of baddies, they were great but they weren't very fulfilling - and I always died."

According to Sean, the one that hurt the most in recent times was the role of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.

Yeah, it didn't end well for Ned either. Credit: HBO

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He was (and don't bother crying 'SPOILER!') beheaded in the penultimate episode of the show's first series. We all know how it went down after that.

He continued: "I'd read the Game of Thrones books and they said to me, 'You do die in this, but it's near the end of the series'. And I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, fair enough'.

"So they made it very clear at the time I was going to die, and I thought, 'I don't want to get stuck in one of these series that lasts seven years'.

"But I wish I'd have got stuck now! But it was very clear what (GoT author) George RR Martin wanted to happen to Ned - and it did."

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Sean manages to stay alive in his new show, World on Fire. Credit: PA

Luckily, the 60-year-old has assurances that his character in a brand-new BBC One drama starting next month, World on Fire survives throughout.

Also starring Academy Award winner Helen Hunt and Lesley Manville, the seven part drama has Bean's character Douglas Bennett campaigning for peace during World War Two whilst suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.