--- old/src/share/vm/c1/c1_LIRGenerator.cpp	2017-01-27 16:22:02.301664140 +0100
+++ new/src/share/vm/c1/c1_LIRGenerator.cpp	2017-01-27 16:22:02.213664137 +0100
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@
 }
 
 
-CodeEmitInfo* LIRGenerator::state_for(Instruction* x, ValueStack* state, bool ignore_xhandler) {
+CodeEmitInfo* LIRGenerator::state_for(Instruction* x, ValueStack* state, bool ignore_xhandler, bool deoptimize_on_exception) {
   assert(state != NULL, "state must be defined");
 
 #ifndef PRODUCT
@@ -461,7 +461,7 @@
     }
   }
 
-  return new CodeEmitInfo(state, ignore_xhandler ? NULL : x->exception_handlers(), x->check_flag(Instruction::DeoptimizeOnException));
+  return new CodeEmitInfo(state, ignore_xhandler ? NULL : x->exception_handlers(), deoptimize_on_exception || x->check_flag(Instruction::DeoptimizeOnException));
 }
 
 
@@ -1807,7 +1807,10 @@
   CodeEmitInfo* info = NULL;
   if (needs_patching) {
     assert(x->explicit_null_check() == NULL, "can't fold null check into patching field access");
-    info = state_for(x, x->state_before());
+    // If the class is not loaded and the object is NULL, we need to deoptimize to throw a
+    // NoClassDefFoundError in the interpreter instead of an implicit NPE from compiled code.
+    bool deoptimize_on_exception = x->needs_null_check();
+    info = state_for(x, x->state_before(), false, deoptimize_on_exception);
   } else if (x->needs_null_check()) {
     NullCheck* nc = x->explicit_null_check();
     if (nc == NULL) {