Daytime Emmy-Winning Soap Star Dead at 50

Tyler Christopher suffered 'cardiac event'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2023 3:30 AM CDT
Daytime Emmy-Winning Soap Star Dead at 50
Tyler Christopher accepts the award for outstanding lead actor for “General Hospital” at the 43rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel on Sunday, May 1, 2016, in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Tyler Christopher, who played Nikolas Cassadine on General Hospital from 1996 to 2016, died Tuesday night at age 50. Christopher, who won a Daytime Emmy for the role in 2016, also appeared on Days of Our Lives between 2001 and 2019 and was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy for outstanding lead actor on that soap opera, Variety reports. He appeared in many other TV shows and made-for-TV movies, and had a few film credits as well. He was married to actress Eva Longoria from 2002 to 2004 and former ESPN reporter Brienne Pedigo, with whom he shares two children, from 2008 to 2021, the Washington Post reports.

In an Instagram post, his General Hospital co-star Maurice Benard wrote that Christopher died after suffering "a cardiac event in his San Diego apartment." He added that the actor "was an advocate for better mental health and substance use treatment who openly spoke about his struggles with bipolar depression and alcohol," and CNN reports that Christopher had in recent years undergone a series of struggles, including a fall in 2019 that resulted in a head injury (and that reportedly came while he was withdrawing from alcohol). In May, he was arrested at a Los Angeles-area airport on suspicion of public intoxication. "Tyler was a truly talented individual that lit up the screen in every scene he performed and relished bringing joy to his loyal fans through his acting," Benard writes. "Tyler was a sweet soul and wonderful friend to all of those who knew him." (More celebrity death stories.)

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