14/08/2026
Remembering the Deadliest Catch Cast & Crew We’ve Lost 🕯️⚓
For more than two decades, Deadliest Catch has taken viewers onto the Bering Sea, where captains and deckhands battle brutal weather, dangerous equipment and exhausting seasons in one of the world’s toughest fisheries. Along the way, viewers also came to know the men behind the boats—and sadly, several members of that extended Deadliest Catch family are no longer with us.
Some were captains whose voices filled the wheelhouse. Others were the men on deck, soaked by freezing spray, cracking jokes between pots and becoming part of a crew that often felt more like a family.
Captain Phil Harris was perhaps the clearest example. At the helm of the Cornelia Marie with sons Josh and Jake nearby, Phil brought a rough-edged warmth to the show that made viewers feel as though they knew him. His death in 2010 at 53 left an absence that could be felt far beyond his own boat.
Then came Justin Tennison, the Time Bandit deckhand who worked with Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, lost in 2011 at only 33.
The Cornelia Marie would later lose another captain, Tony Lara, who helped take the wheel after Phil and died in 2015 at 50. Former Maverick captain Blake Painter, one of the familiar faces from the show’s early years, followed in 2018 at 38.
By 2020, viewers were mourning two more men they had watched work the decks. Mahlon Reyes, seen aboard boats including the Seabrooke and Cape Caution, died at 38. Months later came the loss of Nick McGlashan, Wild Bill Wichrowski’s hard-working deck boss on the Cape Caution and Summer Bay. Nick was only 33.
Todd Kochutin was just 30 when he died in 2021 after being injured while fishing aboard the Patricia Lee—another reminder that the danger shown on Deadliest Catch was never manufactured for television.
And the years kept adding names.
In 2024, Jake Anderson lost Tom Brossard, his trusted Saga engineer and close friend, at 64. That same year, the Northwestern family said goodbye to Nick Mavar, the longtime deckhand Sig Hansen had come to rely on as his right-hand man. Nick was 59.
Then came 2026. Todd Meadows, the newest member of Rick Shelford’s Aleutian Lady crew, had barely begun his Deadliest Catch story when he fell overboard while crabbing. He was only 25.
And in May, the Wizard family lost Gregory Colburn at 32. Gregory had worked the deck from 2018 to 2022 beside a family already deeply woven into the series—his father was relief captain Monte Colburn and his uncle, Captain Keith Colburn.
Eleven men. Different boats, different generations and very different personalities—but together they helped make Deadliest Catch more than a show about catching crab.
Viewers watched them argue, laugh, struggle, succeed and come home from seas that never promised anyone an easy return.
The boats sailed on. The show went on. But every one of them left an empty place on the Bering Sea story. 🕯️
Who do you remember most from their time on Deadliest Catch?
