40 Celebrities We Need To Keep Safe From 2016

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 10: Actor Peter Dinklage arrives for the Premiere Of HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 6 held at TCL Chinese Theatre on April 10, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

35. Peter Dinklage

Confession time: My worst nightmare is to wake up one morning at 6am and start rooting through the news and see that the big story of the day is that Peter Dinklage died overnight in a freak accident/plane crash. It’s an idea that’s haunted me ever since I started writing for WiCnet back in 2014, and it’s one that continues to stay with me to this day.

Why? Because Game of Thrones needs him. Oh, I mean at this point there’s no recasting any of them. (See my earlier post on Maisie.) Clarke, Turner, Harington, the whole lot needs to survive. But above all, Dinklage needs to make it to the end. Tyrion is *the* character we all love int he series, despite his faults. And the irony that in a cast full to the brim of A-list level BBC company members, and those who missed the boat the first time clamoring to get in the door to the point that they’ll take roles as people playing “Game of Thrones players” in a play within a play, it’s the Jersey boy, and the only American in the top tier cast who walks away with the acting Emmy every year…it’s just too damn delicious.

Please 2016, do not touch this one.

-Ani

Next: Simon Le Bon