'The Walking Dead' Actor Reveals He Asked To Be Killed Off The Show

The Walking Dead alum Jeffrey DeMunn, who played bucket hat-wearing moralist Dale in seasons 1 and 2, says he asked for his character to be killed off following the departure of original showrunner Frank Darabont.

A close friend of Darabont's, the actor said Dale's abrupt death at the hands of a lone walker in 2x11 came as an "immense relief."

"I was doing a play down in Texas and Frank called and said, 'Hey, you want to come to Atlanta and kill zombies?'" DeMunn recalled in an interview with Cleveland.com. "I didn't have to think about it. It was Frank. I knew it was going to be quality."

But when Darabont was fired by AMC in July 2011, DeMunn wanted out.

"Dale's death was my decision," DeMunn said. "I was furious about how Frank was pushed out of the show. I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realized, 'Oh, I can quit.' So I called them and said, 'It's a zombie show. Kill me. I don't want to do this anymore.' It was an immense relief to me."

"The writing in the beginning was just amazing, as was that original cast," the actor said before recounting his time on the series' Georgia set.

"You can't talk about The Walking Dead without talking about the extreme heat. I was always grateful for Dale's hat, by the way. It was serious heat and we were working all day. The heat had a way of uniting us all, cast and crew. You kept an eye on your friends under those conditions."

DeMunn's association with Darabont extends back to the 1988 remake of The Blob, scripted by Darabont.

The filmmaker partnered with DeMunn on The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist and The Majestic, later recruiting the actor to take part in TNT drama Mob City following their Walking Dead exit.

Actor Jon Bernthal, whose character Shane Walsh was killed off in the penultimate episode of The Walking Dead's second season, also boarded Mob City in the lead role. The period drama was cancelled after one six-episode season.

Darabont took part in a $280 million dollar lawsuit against AMC in 2016, claiming the network cheated him out of owed profits.

Earlier this year, Darabont filed suit against AMC again — this time for $10 million — in a second profit sharing case.

"In addition to withholding hundreds of millions of dollars from the creators of the hit television series The Walking Dead through improper self-dealing, which is the subject of litigation between the parties currently pending in this court, AMC has used a variety of shady accounting practices... to withhold tens of millions more," the jury-seeking filing read, further accusing AMC of an attempt to "hide evidence related to its self-dealing from Plaintiffs during discovery in the pending litigation."

During his time as showrunner, Darabont took issue with AMC for slashing the series' second season budget per episode, lowering it from $3.4 million to $2.75 million despite then-rising ratings.

DeMunn plays Chuck Rhoades Sr. on Billions, which premieres its third season tonight on Showtime. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.