In 'Station Eleven', what is the name of the actor who dies on stage at the beginning?

In Station Eleven, the actor who dies on stage at the beginning is Arthur Leander. He suffers a fatal heart attack while playing King Lear at Toronto's fictional Elgin Theatre, just as the Georgia Flu begins spreading into a global pandemic.

Arthur's death is the novel's opening disaster and connects its major timelines. Jeevan Chaudhary, watching from the audience, attempts to help and then comforts the young actor Kirsten Raymonde. That brief encounter becomes one of the emotional links between the pre-pandemic world and the society Kirsten helps rebuild twenty years later.

Arthur is not merely a triggering character. He is a successful film actor from the fictional Delano Island in British Columbia, but his fame masks an unhappy and unsettled personal life. He marries three times and leaves behind complicated relationships, including his friendship with the comic-book creator Miranda Carroll.

Kirsten later preserves two volumes of Miranda's Station Eleven comic, which Arthur gave her before his death. The comic becomes a symbol of memory, survival, and the possibility of meaning after civilization collapses.