Actor Leslie Jordan’s official cause of death has been confirmed: he suffered “sudden cardiac dysfunction and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office confirmed Thursday to Yahoo Entertainment.
The beloved Call Me Kat actor and social media star, 67, died the morning of Oct. 24 in a car crash at Cahuenga Boulevard and Romaine Street in West Hollywood, Calif. He had been on his way to the set of the sitcom, and it was suspected from the beginning that a medical emergency had caused him to drive into the side of a building.
The sudden death prompted tributes from Jordan’s current and former colleagues, including Ellen DeGenres, George Takei and his former castmates on Will and Grace. They recalled someone who was happy, always telling stories and generating laughs in his real life, just as he was online.
Actress Mayim Bialik, Call Me Kat‘s Kat, gave a statement from the cast when Jordan died, prompting the sitcom to pause production.
“There aren’t words to convey the loss we are experiencing as a cast and as a Call Me Kat family,” Bialik said. “Leslie Jordan was larger than life. He was a Southern gentleman; tender, wise, naughty and hilarious. We got to know and love him at the height of his happiness and joy and it is inconceivable to imagine a world without our Leslie: the man who would spit on his contact lenses before putting them in his eyes, the man who had a story about every man in Hollywood, and some of the women as well, the man who lived to make people laugh. We will be taking time to grieve and to celebrate the many gifts Leslie gave to us and to the entire world and we appreciate privacy at this time.”
Phil, Jordan’s character on the Fox show, which co-stars Swoozie Kurtz, Kyla Pratt, Julian Gant and Cheyenne Jackson, appeared in his final episode in December. On the episode that followed, which aired Jan. 5, it was revealed that Phil had found love and moved to Tahiti.
Producer Jim Patterson told Deadline in December that, in this way, “Phil will live on forever and live his best and happiest life.”
Many of Jordan’s celebrity friends, including Eddie Vedder, Maren Morris, Margaret Cho, Jim Parsons and Bialik, are scheduled to appear at Reportin’ for Duty: A Tribute to Leslie Jordan on Feb. 19 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn.
All proceeds will benefit the EB Research Partnership, a charity that Jordan loved.
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