Being the main character in a long-running horror franchise is practically guaranteed to kill you at some point down the line. Sequels tend to raise the stakes—and what better way to do that than to kill off a survivor from the previous film? The Scream series is a great example of this approach, especially since the list of killers wearing the Ghostface costume have quite a personal grudge against the people they attack.

Because of this, even main characters like Dewey Riley (David Arquette), who have been proven to survive serial killer after serial killer, can suddenly fall victim to a sudden death scene several movies into the game. (In Dewey's case, he clashed with Ghostface in the 2022 "Scream" revival.) Sometimes, behind-the-scenes issues also affect the main character's appearance, as when the franchise star Neve Campbell Turned the City of Scream VI due to the studio belittling her with its contract offer.

Despite the enormous difficulty of surviving more than a few films in the franchise, there are two actors who managed to appear in all six installments of the "Scream" series. Let's take a closer look at how Courteney Cox and Roger L. Jackson every Scream movie, from worst to best.

Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is a survivor, which is all the more impressive because narratively, she should be one of the first targets for almost any Ghostface. Gale begins the series in the original 1996 "Scream" as an unpleasant and insulting reporter covering the Woodsboro murders and constantly confronting the case of central protagonist Sidney Prescott (Campbell). This makes her just the kind of boring character that, in many other films, she would wander off to the wrong place and meet her fate, while garnering very little sympathy from the audience.

However, Gale is not your average horror movie character. She shows more and more sympathetic traits, survives the film and keeps coming back. She writes books about the murders, befriends Sidney, marries and divorces Dewey, and continues in 2022 relaunching Scream and beyond. All of these roles offer copious encounters with various Ghostfaces and opportunities for gruesome demises, but Gale still deftly (and sometimes barely) avoids the various dark horror movie fates usually reserved for the protagonist's best friend, the love interest of the character's favorite character. the fans, the celebrity. target, or an easy scapegoat to revive the franchise.

A true workhorse of the franchise and easily Cox's most famous character since Monica Geller on Friends, Gale is a tried-and-true wife who's seen a lot more carnage than most, but who still generally manages to be the grown-up in the room. The End of Scream VI (2023) almost ends her streak when Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato) critically wounds her. Despite this close call, the film confirms that Gale survives her injuries, so don't be shocked to see Cox return for more in Scream 7.

"Do you like scary movies?" Ghostface is the rare killer who is as recognizable by their voice as by their costume, which is impressive considering the sheer number of killers who have donned the iconic cape and mask over the years. In-universe, the effect is achieved with a voice modulation device that allows the various Ghostfaces to mask their true voices ... and, from the franchise's point of view, maintain some semblance of continuity for the killer character. Behind the scenes, the effect is achieved by simply having the same man voice Ghostface in every Scream movie.

The actor behind Ghostface's unique sound is Roger L. Jackson, whose contribution to the series is such that he is usually simply thought of as "The Voice". What's more, he's not content to just provide voice work in every Scream movie to date. His reach within the franchise blows every other Scream actor out of the water, as he also voices Ghostface in the 2019 Scream TV series as well as various video games.

Being The voice actor of Ghostface may be Jackson's best-known work, but he's also done a wide variety of voice work for countless video games and animated TV shows. His most prominent non-Scream role is voicing The Powerpuff Girls villain Mojo Jojo — which, when you compare the supervillain's unique, high-pitched monotone to Ghostface's greasy, menacing whisper, really says something about Jackson's stature. talent.