Soap Star Tyler Christopher Cause of Death Revealed
If ever a story screamed “You can’t do this alone,” it is Tyler Christopher’s story. Not that he was unique to the situation, mind you. A whole lotta folks attempt to go it alone. But that his story so exemplifies how bad the decision to go it alone actually turns out to be – for everybody.
Unfortunately, the bad decision turned out to be worse for Christopher himself. In fact, it will be the worst decision he’ll ever get to make.
And his last.
Yes, according to the San Diego Medical Examiner, Tyler Christopher died from positional asphyxia due to acute alcohol intoxication. In other words, he suffocated to death, after passing out drunk in a position that stifled his breathing. His condition was exacerbated by coronary artery atherosclerosis. That stands for a plaque build-up in the valves that go to the heart. Neither are a pretty sight; combined they’re beyond frightening.
And deadly.
An Obvious Relapse
Tyler Christopher’s “accidental death” comes after an obvious relapse. It also comes while he was alone, which is one of the main tenets he counsels against. In fact, Christopher counseled against being alone pretty much every time he spoke in front of a camera and/or a microphone.
“I was going through delirium tremens by myself completely alone, which is deadly,” he shared. “I fell, and when I hit this part of my head on the edge of a bathtub my skull exploded,” he said on former costar and longtime friend Maurice Benard’s podcast, State of Mind. It was a pretty gnarly interview. Candid too. With serious talk about his drinking vanilla extract from the age of nine to getting canned by Days of Our Lives before he hit 50.
Christopher also talked about being rescued from a friend after he’d found himself on Skid Row.: “What a burden it is to believe that we can do this alone.” Then he added “it’s a burden that I don’t want.”
But in the end alone is what he got. Then again, in the end that’s what we all get.
It doesn’t have to be that way while you’re alive though. Everyone has someone who’ll look out for them, be it family, friend or social worker. The key is to find someone you trust and then to trust them implicitly. Listen to what they say; follow their recommendations; heed their calls. Then you can stop being alone.
Tyler Christopher: Accomplishments Gone Astray
Soap fans will likely know Tyler Christopher from the two decades he spent playing Nikolas Cassadine on General Hospital. After all, it was the role for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award (after four nominations), as well as the role that made his name. If fans were surprised when he left GH to play Stefan DiMera on Days of Our Lives, they didn’t really show it. Mostly, they just followed him over to the new role. After a few short years though, it was clear that Christopher’s heart wasn’t in the mood for the move.
His drinking didn’t pause though. Not even when it got him axed from the show. And not even after everyone learned that drinking was the real reason he’d left GH. He’d been let go.
Even worse, while attempting to get sober in 2019, Christopher suffered the fall that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. He told Benard that the fall was caused by alcohol withdrawal.
Christopher’s family was told he wouldn’t survive the fall, but after waking up from his life-saving brain surgery he’d decided to overcome the injury. His doctor warned him about the risks of returning to alcohol.
“He said, ‘Compound the fact that you’re already an addict, if you decide to go back to that part of your life again, your brain can’t handle it,’” Christopher explained.
Christopher was then put under the medical conservatorship of his sister, with whom he lived in Ohio for two years. Noting that isolation is “a trigger” for his bipolar disorder, he said he got on a train to Los Angeles to pick his career back up. But things didn’t go according to plan.
“I showed up at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, and I called the gentleman I was supposed to stay with,” he recalled. “For whatever reason — to this day I still don’t know why — he said, ‘I’m sorry but you can’t come here.’ So I’m standing at Union Station saying, ‘Where do I go?’ A lot of my friends had left me after my injury — I had no one to call.”
What followed was a few weeks bopping around Skid Row wondering which way to go. Eventually, he walked up to Hollywood, then Toluca Lake, where he prayed his one last call would be answered. And answered it was. Giving him a place from which to restart his life.
Christopher did pretty well too. No, he didn’t land any more daytime roles — headline or otherwise — but he did land more than a few TV Movies. That work brought him the revenue necessary to go it alone again, and that apparently led him to landing the San Diego apartment.
And it was in that San Diego apartment where Tyler Christopher would meet his maker — alone.
Tyler Christopher
We wholeheartedly extend our sympathies to Tyler Christopher’s friends and family, especially his two children, son Greysun, 14, and daughter Boheme, 8, and his ex-wife, former ESPN reporter Brienne Pedigo. We also extend our sympathies to Eva Longoria, with whom Christopher was married for two years. Mostly though, we extend our sympathies to the many, many folks he worked with on Days of Our Lives and General Hospital. You don’t spend decades in a role without a legion behind you. It is that legion to whom we extend our sympathies.
If you or a loved one is suffering from substance abuse, please call someone. Whether you call us at Healing Properties or SAMHSA, just call someone. You don’t have to go through it alone.
