Saving characters from write outs

It comes to something when fellow authors beg a fellow writer not to kill off a character but Stephen King and John Irving apparently did just that (see today's Independent pg 23) to try and convince J.K Rowling not to kill off Harry Potter at the end of the seven book series.
It reminds you of the pressure put on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when he tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes. In that instance it staved off the end for a while longer, so based on that precedent it might just work again.
The real tragedy is that the grim reaper can't be convinced to let a few great authors live on to produce another couple of masterpieces.