Josh Charles has played the character of Will Gardner on CBS's 'The Good Wife' since 2009.

But on the political drama's latest episode, which aired on Sunday (March 23th), the 42 year-old's character was shockingly killed off.

Charles made his first public appearance since his dramatic exit from the show when visiting the 'Late Show With David Letterman' this Monday (March 24th).

As soon as the actor was seated and settled for the interview, Letterman emphatically said, "You got killed off!"

"That's what you gotta do to get on the Letterman show," Charles replied. "I had to do that, I had to get killed off to get on your show."

The 'Sports Night' actor also noted, in this age of the impact of social media, how impressive it was that his surprising death was kept a secret.

"Yeah, we've known this since last year," he said. "It's been one of the greatest gigs for me in my entire career, but at the end of last year, my contract was up and I was just ready to kind of move on."

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When talking about the timing of his character's killing, Charles thought returning to season 5 for 15 episodes was a great way to end his time on the drama, as it "really was great for the show and also was a really proper goodbye to the character, so that was special."

The Baltimore native also revealed the only people to know of his impending fate were very close and trusted relatives, he only told the ones "that I know could keep a secret, which is a very few."

The response to the death of character Will Garnder has been very touching especially on social media according to Charles, but the most memorable reaction was from his neighbors.

"When I went downstairs and I saw by our mailbox, the neighbors across the street, who I don't even know, had left my wife and I a really beautiful note just saying, 'We feel like a family member had died and we know this is just a TV show,' and all that," Charles recalled. "I was very touched by it. A lot the response from Twitter has been much of the same and I just wanted to say to all the fans that I really appreciate all of your comments. It's meant a lot. I get invested in characters in TV shows, too. Everything's going to be OK. I'll call your mom later."

Watch Josh Charles' appearance on the 'Late Show' below