Why are the female leads chosen to die in films?

Question

Examples of films when the female leads die in the films:
Amber Tamblyn in THE GRUDGE 2 (2006),
Maggie Grace in THE FOG (2005),
Virginia Madsen in CANDYMAN (1992),
Annette Bening in THE SIEGE (1998),
Sela Ward in THE FUGITIVE (1993),
Amanda Peet in IDENTITY (2003),
Ramsay Ames in THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944),
and Jordana Brewster in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE - THE BEGINNING (2006).
Tell me what you know! Simple answers will not be rated.

Answer 1

Don't just as many male leads die?
Armageddon~Bruce Willis
They Live!~Roddy Piper//Meg Foster survives.
Untamed Heart~Christian Slater//Marisa Tomei survives.
White Heat~James Cagney
All That Jazz~Roy Scheider
Algiers~Charles Boyer//Hedy Lamarr survives.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre~Humphrey Bogart
West Side Story~Richard Beymer, George Chakiris AND Russ Tamblyn! All of the female leads survive.
Sleeping With the Enemy~Patrick Bergin//Julia Roberts survives.
Arlington Road~Jeff Bridges
The Fly (original and remake)~Al (David) Hedison and Jeff Goldblum//Both female leads survive.
Nomads~Pierce Brosnan//Both female leads survive.
Session 9~I can't recall whether all of the men are killed, with no one left behind.
Spartacus~Kirk Douglas//Jean Simmons survives.
Saturn 3~Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel//Farrah Fawcett survives.
The Exorcist~Max von Sydow and Jason Miller
Pumpkinhead~Lance Henriksen
Alien~Only the female lead survives! Sigourney Weaver managed to survive even to the end of the fourth film, though that Ellen Ripley is a clone.
Candyman~Virginia Madsen's character destroys Candyman (Tony Todd), remember? Then, she becomes a legend, returning to kill her husband (Xander Berkley) after he calls her name. So, both male leads die! Of course, we know they bring Tony Todd back for the sequels.
An American Werewolf in London~David Naughton//Leading lady Jenny Agutter survives.
Titanic~Leonardo DiCaprio//Kate Winslet survives.
Somewhere in Time~Christopher Reeve
Deathtrap~Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve
Venom~Jonathan Jackson, along with practically every other male in the cast//Agnes Bruckner survives.
The Wicker Man (both versions)~Edward Woodward and Nicolas Cage
The Invisible Man~Claude Rains
The Fury~Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes AND Andrew Stevens//Amy Irving survives.
The Shining~Jack Nicholson//Shelly Duvall survives.
Alien vs. Predator~Sanaa Latham is the sole survivor except for the Predators who arrive.
Night of the Living Dead (original and remake)~Duane Jones and Tony Todd
Shadow of a Doubt~Joseph Cotten

Anytime the male lead is a vampire, he generally is destroyed. Most of the time, the female vampire is restored to her "pure" state. This occurs in nearly every Dracula movie, as well as "Fright Night" (Chris Sarandon), "The Lost Boys" (Edward Herrmann, Kiefer Sutherland and the rest of the boys), and "Brides of Dracula".

You can argue one side or the other. You have to be fair though. It doesn't weigh heavily one way or the other, not when you go movie-by-movie.

They do have this unspoken rule of the "final female" in most horror/science fiction films. Generally, if someone is going to survive, it's a female. By the way, Maggie Grace isn't shown dying in "The Fog"; it's more like shifting to some phantom mode since no body is left behind.

Isn't Sela Ward just the catalyst in the story? Isn't it her murder that sets everything in motion? So, she's a story element, not truly the female lead. Or, am I mixed up about this film?

A girl is the only survivor of the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", isn't she? I wonder how they fare in the others.

A good question might be: What do TV writers have against leading males getting married or even having a serious relationship? I sort of think of it as the Little Joe Syndrome. Every time Little Joe Cartwright (Michael Landon) of "Bonanza" would get serious about a girl, she'd have to go one way or the other~leave him or die; at least one almost-bride died. Sometimes this happens in films, but TV series have a bad habit of doing this. One Sunday evening, one of the Hardy Boys lost his true love; about an hour or so later, Jane Seymour was the bride fatality on "Battlestar Galactica"! Both shows were by the same producer! Talk about bad timing, wouldn't you say? As recently as "Supernatural", we've had two true-love losses!

It's heading for 7 a.m., so I shall goodnight and retreat from this interesting discussion.

Answer 2

1) Asha Parekh 2) Waheeda Rehman

Answer 3

I would say that part of it would be that female are generally portrayed as more innocent or vulnerable, so the audience roots for the female lead, especially if they are a well developed character the audience likes.

It's much more dissappointing to see a soft, vulnerable female character die than to see a badass, strong male die.

And part of it could be sexism.

Another question: How many movies have male leads that die?