In English, death is often given the name the "Grim Reaper" and shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe, and wearing a midnight black gown, robe or cloak with a hood, or sometimes a white burial shroud. Usually when portrayed in the black-hooded gown, his face is not to be seen, but is a mere shadow beneath the hood.

In some cases, the Grim Reaper is able to actually cause the victim's death, leading to tales that he can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted in order to retain one's life. Other beliefs hold that the Spectre of death is only a psychopomp, serving only to sever the last tie from the soul to the body and guide the deceased to the next world and having no control over the fact of their death.

In Hindu scriptures the lord of death is called Yama, or Yamaraj (literally "the lord of death"). Yamaraj rides a black buffalo and carries a rope lasso to carry the soul back to his abode called "Yamalok". There are many forms of reapers, also some say there is only one whom disguises itself as a small child. It is his agents, the Yamaduts, who carry the souls back to Yamalok. Here, all the accounts of the person's good and bad deeds are stored and maintained by Chitragupta, which allow Yamaraj to decide where the soul has to reside in his next life, following the theory of reincarnation. Yama is also mentioned in the Mahabharata as a great philosopher and devotee of Supreme Brahman.

Interestingly, Yama is also known as Dharmaraj or king of Dharma or justice. One reasoning is that justice is served equally to all – whether they are alive or dead, based on their karma or fate. This is further strengthened by the fact that Yudhishtra, the eldest of the pandavas and considered as the personification of justice, in Mahabharata was born due to Kunti's prayers to Yamaraj.

In Japanese mythology/folklore - Kojiki, after giving birth to the fire-god Hinokagutsuchi, the goddess Izanami dies from wounds of its fire and enters the perpetual night realm called Yominokuni that the gods thereto retire. After Izanagi, her husband, failed in the attempt to reclaim her from the land of Yomi (the underworld, to which he travels and discovers his wife as not-so beautiful anymore), in a brief argument with Izanagi, she claimed to take 1000 lives every day signifying her position as the goddess of death.

Another popular death personification is Enma (Yama), also known as Enma Ou and Enma Daiou (Enma King, Enma Great King – translations of Yama Rājā). He originated as Yama in Hinduism, later became Yanluo in China, and Enma in Japan. He is from Chinese Buddhism, and before that, from India. Enma rules the underworld, which makes him similar to Hades, and he decides whether someone dead goes to heaven or to hell. A common saying parents use in Japan to scold children is that Enma will cut off their tongue in the afterlife if they lie.

There are also death gods called shinigami, which are closer to the Western tradition of the Grim Reaper. Shinigami (often plural) are common in modern Japanese arts and fiction, and essentially absent from traditional mythology.

In ancient Greek mythology, the Greek find death to be inevitable, and therefore he is not represented as purely evil. He is often portrayed as a bearded and winged man, but has also been portrayed as a young boy. death, or Thanatos is the counterpart of life; death being represented as male, and life as female. He is the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He is typically shown with his brother, and is represented as being just and gentle. His job is to escort the deceased to the underworld Hades. He then hands the dead over to Charon (who by some accounts looks like the modern western interpretation of the Grim Reaper, having a skeletal body and black cloak), who mans the boat which carries them over the Lethe. The river is the separation of the land of the dead, and the land of the living. It is from Charon that the tradition of putting pennies over the eyes of the dead was born. It was believed that if the ferryman did not receive some sort of payment, the soul would not be delivered to the underworld, and left by the riverside for eternity. Thanatos' sisters, the Keres were the spirits of violent death. They were associated with deaths from battle, disease, accident, and murder. They were portrayed as evil, often feeding on the blood of the body after the soul had been escorted to Hades. They had fangs, talons, and would be dressed in bloody garments.

death is, either as a metaphor, a personification or an actual being, referenced occasionally in the New Testament. One such personification is found in Acts 2:24 – "But God raised Him [Jesus] from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him". Later passages, however, are much more explicit. Romans 5 speaks of death as having "reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses", and various passages in the Epistles speak of Christ's work on the Cross and His Resurrection as a confrontation with death. Such verses include Rom. 6:9 and 2 Tim. 1:10.

Despite Jesus' victory over it, death is still viewed as enduring in Scripture. 1 Cor. 15:26 asserts, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death", which implies that death has not been destroyed once and for all. This assertion later proves true in the Book of Revelation.

The final destruction of death is referenced by Paul in the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians; he says that after the general resurrection, the prophecies of Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14 – "He will swallow up death forever", and "Where, O death, is your sting?" (Septuagint), will be fulfilled. According to Paul, the power of death lies in sin, which is made possible by the Law, but God "gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That victory over death is also discussed in the Revelation of John.

In Roman Catholicism, the archangel Michael is viewed as the good Angel of death (as opposed to Samael, the evil Angel of death), carrying the souls of the deceased to Heaven. There, he balances them in his scales (one of his symbols). He is said to give the dying souls the chance to redeem themselves before passing as well. In Mexico, a popular folk-Catholic belief regards the Angel of death as a saint, known as Santa Muerte, but this local cultus is not acknowledged by the Church.

A personified character of death has recurred many times in popular fiction. The character can be found in early pieces, such as the fifteenth century morality play Everyman.

In the present day, death is portrayed in many mediums of popular fiction. One of the most iconic portrayals is that of the 1957 film The Seventh Seal, by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. It is an influential (and heavily symbolic) movie depicting one of the most famous moments in the portrayal of death. In the movie, a medieval knight returning from a crusade plays a game of chess with death, with the knight's life depending upon the outcome of the game. American film critic Roger Ebert remarked that this image "[is] so perfect it has survived countless parodies."

An atypical personification of death appears in The Sandman, a series of comic books written by Neil Gaiman, in which death, one of the Endless, is depicted as a woman. The image and attire of The Endless change to match with the human styles of their current periods, and as such she appears in current era in the guise of a Goth girl. Throughout the different periods she is always shown wearing an Ankh around her neck.

A 2003 television series portrays death a little differently from the norm. In the MGM production Dead Like Me an 18 year old girl dies only to find out that she will now become a Grim Reaper. These Grim Reapers are given information of who will die and when. They must then remove the soul from the body before that person dies. Afterwards, they send the soul on it's way to the next life. The show makes "death" seem like a new beginning for some. The reapers are living dead persons who have to keep jobs and the like. They must stay out of death's way and do their job or terrible things happen. The entity that actually causes the deaths are little demons know as Gravelings. They are seemingly responsible for the incident that causes the persons death. The "Grim Reaper" is merely there to escort the dead's souls to the life hereafter.