How Did Casper The Friendly Ghost Die?

Universal Pictures

Casper the Friendly Ghost made his theatrical debut in I. Sparber's 1945 short "The Friendly Ghost," released by Famous Studios. The gimmick of the short was that a boy-like apparition named Casper, feeling lonely and wanting friends, would causally approach animals and adults to introduce himself only to see them flee in terror. He is, after all, a ghost. Only open-minded children could see that Casper wasn't a threat and befriend him. 

The success of "The Friendly Ghost" led to 54 additional Famous Studios Casper shorts that lasted through 1959. Casper also began starring in a series of Harvey Comics in 1951, and the character's mythos expanded greatly. He soon became friends with a witch named Wendy and was bullied by some baddies called the Ghostly Trio. The comics and shorts also spawned multiple TV shows to feature the Friendly Ghost, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, and his popularity was retained throughout the 1980s through incessant reruns. In 1995, Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment released a big-budget, high-profile, live-action "Casper" movie, directed by Brad Silberling, which realized the Friendly Ghost in CGI. The $55 million film earned an impressive $288 million at the box office and left a deep mark on kids who saw it. 

The 1995 "Casper" movie was the first time Casper's ghostliness was addressed directly. Casper, after all, had to die to become a Friendly Ghost, and audiences finally had to note that this was actually the story of Casper the Little Dead Boy. In a brief moment at the end of the film, Casper is resurrected, played by actor Devon Sawa. 

This begs the very practical question: how did Casper die? What tragedy befell the young Casper McFadden that he was killed and left on the Earthly plane as a spirit? 

Universal Pictures

In Silberling's film, a young girl named Kat (Christina Ricci) and her psychologist father Dr. Harvey (Bill Pullman) move into the haunted house where Casper (Malachi Pearson) and the Ghostly Trio (Brad Garrett, Joe Alaskey, and Joe Nipote) hang out. Throughout the film, Kat becomes friends with Casper, and the Ghostly Trio plays a prank on Dr. Harvey ... by telling him they have access to his dead wife. Casper eventually reveals that he caught pneumonia and died after playing in the snow. 

Casper returned as a ghost, however, and began to haunt his own father, a mad scientist named J.T. McFadden. Dr. McFadden invented a machine to transform his ghostly son back into a mortal being after being tormented by visions of his dead son's spirit. McFadden would have used his Lazarus machine, but he was declared insane and committed to an asylum before he had a chance. Because Casper is a ghost, he can't remember all the details of his life. 

And the story bears a note of tragedy beyond Casper's mere death. It seems the reason Casper was out in the cold catching pneumonia is because his father bought him a brand-new sled, and Casper loved it so much, that he rode it all day and into the night. His father was indirectly responsible for his son's illness.

The 1995 film was the first time Casper's death was explicitly mentioned. In previous Harvey Comics, Casper was never alive, having been born to a ghost mother and a ghost father. The fact that ghosts can breed is a theological can of worms we're not going to open here. The 1995 film was also the first time Casper the Little Dead Boy was given a last name. Up until then, Casper was just known as The Friendly Ghost. 

20th Television

Prior to 1995, there were theories — openly perpetuated by "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening — that Casper was actually the ghost of Richie Rich, another character published by Harvey Comics. When one looks at drawings of Casper and Richie side-by-side, one will note that they have similar head and body proportions, as well as the same large eyes. Both Casper and Richie also live in enormous mansions. Groening felt that Richie Rich died as a child, and his spirit remained in his mansion in perpetuity. "Perhaps he realized how hollow the pursuit of money really is and took his own life," Lisa Simpson once posited. Because ghosts have faulty memories, Richie started going by the name Casper.

Some have taken the Casper/Richie story one step further by suggesting that Richie Rich's parents fell upon hard times and had to murder their child for the insurance money. Casper, in that case, would have returned from the grave as a vengeful spirit. 

Of course, Casper and Richie Rich did occasionally meet one another in cross-over comics from Harvey, so that theory doesn't hold a lot of water (or ectoplasm, as the case may be). It also doesn't jive with the 1959 short "Casper's Birthday Party" wherein audiences met Casper's ghostly parents. Either Casper and his family all died together (which is possible), or Casper lives in a universe of mating ghosts (also possible, though disturbing to ponder). Or perhaps Casper revenge-killed them, and all three lost their memories of the murder and began living together again in ghostly familial bliss (definitely also possible).