Kathy Bates is a recurring face of American Horror Story, but her various characters have a habit of getting killed off in very brutal ways. The actress first joined the FX anthology in 2013 for season 3's Coven. In total, Bates appeared in five seasons of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's show thus far, and several times, she played more than one character. After skipping out on season 9, Bates will make her series return for the show's upcoming season 10.
As one of the American Horror Story veterans, Bates is accustomed to the show's emphasis on death and despair. That said, the actress probably didn't expect to play characters who never make it out alive in their respective seasons. Some of her characters were based on historical figures, while others were created solely for the TV show. Either way, the characters portrayed by Bates were unable to escape gruesome deaths.
Throughout her series run to this point, Bates played six characters. On a few occasions, she portrayed more than one figure, or reprised a role from a previous season. Interestingly enough, Bates' characters died in similar ways, with an emphasis being on head or neck injuries. Even though the cast nor the crew have confirmed why this is, it seems like more than just a coincidence. Let's take a look at all of the ways that characters played by Bates have met their ends in American Horror Story.
A Breakdown Of Kathy Bates' Character Deaths In AHS
Bates first played Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie in Coven. The wealthy socialite from the 1800s was granted immortality, but buried alive for torturing and killing slaves before she was discovered by coven members. After trying to make up for her past, she was granted a real death at the hands of Queenie. Before that, however, Delphine was decapitated by voodoo priestess Marie Laveau. Bates' next American Horror Story appearance came in the season 4, Freak Show. She played Ethel Darling, the bearded woman at Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities. Ethel also suffered severe injuries to her head after a knife was thrown into her eye by Elsa Mars. To cover up Ethel's death, Elsa cut off her head and made it look like she was decapitated in a car accident.
Next, Bates portrayed Iris, the manager of the Hotel Cortez, in season 5. Upon losing her son, Iris attempted suicide, and when overdosing didn't work, a fellow ghost assisted by suffocating her with a plastic bag. Iris was then revived by her son with the dangerous blood virus. In Roanoke, Bates played Agnes Mary Winstead, the woman who portrayed Thomasin White (aka "The Butcher") in the in-universe documentary, My Roanoke Nightmare. Not only was Thomasin's throat slit in the series, but Agnes fell victim to the real version of her character when the ghost of The Butcher swung a cleaver into her head.
Bates reprised her Coven role in Apocalypse, but she also introduced a new American Horror Story character through her portrayal of Miriam Mead. As a human, Miriam was burned at the stake by the coven, but after being resurrected in the form of an android, Cordelia killed her a second time. When she was destroyed, her robotic head fell off. Of course, Bates' Apocalypse deaths were erased after the time travel retconned the series of events.