For those who are claiming I have misspelled his name, I would like to share a scan of his toe tag with you. The Los Angeles County Coroner has confirmed with me that, “The name on the toe tag was taken from the initial report by the law enforcement agency. He was later positively identified by his CA driver’s license and his full name and correct spelling was entered into the Coroner database. We strive to have correct information on all cases, but sometimes by the time we have the real deal, we have already printed documents that become the permanent record.” With that in mind, his name is now corrected.
Many thanks to our friends at Celebrity Collectables, who provided the autopsy report for this story. Thanks Ted, you guys are too generous to us.
On Wednesday the 12th of November 2003, a kid by the name of Jonathan Brandis killed himself. He never made a huge impression on the entertainment world – (I’ve since been corrected, apparently he was hugely famous and got loads of fan mail.). I only know him coz he was the kid that stuttered in the scary clown TV movie, IT.
He did several other things, which you can see here.
For some reason his death really struck a chord with a lot of people. I’ve never received more email after a celebrity death. My theory is that since he was so young (27) that a lot of people around that age or younger are just now dealing with thoughts of their own mortality. At least that’s all I can come up with. I remember the first time someone I knew was killed, I walked around like a zombie for about a month. Weird how things affect.
He lived in a cool old apartment building just off Wilshire Boulevard,
that had a front door that looked like a drawbridge.
To visit him, no doubt you rang this doorbell.
He lived on the second floor.
So Brandis… I guess he was having a bad life, certainly a bad day. According to his mom he went out to dinner with friends, then they went back to his apartment. His friends reported that he seemed to be agitated, and pacing around quite a bit. He left the room, and about 15 minutes later one of his friends went looking for him, and found him. He was hanging by a nylon rope, in the second floor hallway of this building. His friends cut him down, and called paramedics. Despite efforts, he was pronounced dead at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, 2:44pm.
Kevin Hassell comes thru and provides us with Brandis’ Death Certificate. Thank you Kevin!
He was wearing a pair of Diesel Jeans, white-blue-green and red Tommy boxers, and white socks.
Background: according to his mother, he had no prior suicide attempts, drank socially, quit smoking over two years prior, and did not abuse drugs. There were no personal problems, except for the fact that he could be quite hard on himself. Somewhere, something was definitely wrong.
The paramedics claimed to smell alcohol in his vomit, but forensics found that there were no drugs at all, and only .03% alcohol. So he was in clear thought when he offed himself. He must have been one sad individual.
He was cremated, and given to his family. There was a vacancy the day I was there.
I wonder…
Wanna see his mailbox?
A few weeks ago, I went out on my Sunday morning bike ride to take photographs for Findadeath. See? My devotion never ends. Well, I completely blame Ashton Kutcher for breaking my camera when it jumped out of my hands to photograph his dumb restaurant that day. I took photographs for this story, but none came out – so I had to wait until today to take replacement pictures. But before I screwed up my camera, I managed a few pictures of the La Brea tar pits,
which are really impressive.
In fact, I was sorta surprised to see real tar seeping out of the sidewalks.
Learn something new every day.
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What I don't understand is, it said it was a Nylon rope. Wouldn't that break with his weight? And the other thing is, so he just grabbed a rope from in his apartment and walked past his friends with it and put the door? That makes no sense.
JFC this comment section is a train wreck! Some of y’all need to calm the f down and quit with the conspiracies. People get depressed and take their own lives every single day. But because this kid tasted fame and money y’all think it couldn’t have been suicide? Puhlease.
No sorry people do, celebrities do not kill themselves. They get taken out or fake their death
Wtf?! Ok so Robin Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell, Margot Kidder, Freddie Prinze, Ray Combs, Don Cornelius, Del Shannon, Peg Entwistle, etc. all were killed by some vast f’ing conspiracy?? (edited by admin)
Actually, it’s not conspiracy theory with many of those you mentioned, especially Bennington and Cornell and Cobain. I have definite proof of 2 of the 3 but you will never know. Lol. Carry on
Right. Well, I'm sort-of an unofficial expert on this mysterious case. And every time I go back and refresh my memory of the events of that situation, the conclusion I always come to is that I don't think he killed himself, not by his own volition. The physics alone in the autopsy report, basically make no sense in a suicide sense.
I did find the last photo taken of him though. At least, what I suspect IS the last photo taken of him alive. I'll try to add it as the website link, at the end.
In the photo, he looked... well, I'm not sure if it was pissed or sad. But I've seen it floating around, at least since like last year. There's more though. If you print out the photo at CVS Photo, you'll notice that the clothing pretty much matches what he was said to have been wearing, except for like, the shirt. Also, I could swear that the bruising the coroner mentioned around his lip/nose was present in the photo too.
A few other curious bits of info, that I feel might be relevant to any other armchair sleuths. First, a camera went missing from Leo DiCaprio's annual birthday bash like, the night before Jon died, and back in the day some thought some photos of Jon were on it. Also, Leo had a curious guest or two at his party that year, and word is people noticed that. I don't want to get into more than just the facts, but Leo knew at least three guys on the bloody sex offender registry, and one or more was invited and was seen attending the party that year. Steven Marshall, the executive producer of Growing Pains was arrested for child pornography in 2010 and was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. Brian Peck and also Leo DiCaprio’s former publicist Bob Villard are kinda creeptacular, and there's several articles about them and other people who Leo kept in contact with who were at best, sketchy. The sad thing is, that back in the day.... everyone growing up around that time, knew who everyone else was. I was once told, that some comments were made in Jon's presence that night, about Leo's other... guests. In what exact context, I wish I knew. Only that he was seen to be in a foul mood during the party.
Jon was always one to take things personally, he was also his own harshest critic. If anyone said anything negative about him or to him, he'd stew on that. He also may never have acted on suicidal feelings, but he's talked before about having had depression before. It's one reason he started that advice column, as a teen. Let's Get Through It Together. Always thought that if he were alive today, he'd have been on YT, doing something helpful like that.
Once, I saw a man TRY to hang himself. Fortunately, he was unsuccessful. But as I said before, the physics in the report never made sense. If a body was going downward, the force would be on the front of the neck. And yet Jon's cause of death was a small blood clot and bruise on the BACK of his neck, normally attributed to a whiplash or car crash event. Where the back of his head connected with the knot of the noose. I may not be a physics major, but if a body was dropped down, the head would bend back and then jerk forward with the abrupt stop down, causing more bruising to the front of the neck and possibly damage to the trachea and so on. But if a body was being LIFTED UP, and in a sudden way... I'm sorry, but the neck would go forward then SNAP BACK suddenly. Against the knot of the noose, causing the small bruising and likely the blood clot which lead to the lack of oxygen to the brain.
That, if nothing else... always leaves me with a hell of a lot of questions and wonderment why it was closed so damn quickly.
Oh, my.
Hey,idk if you’ll reply but imma reply to you because I’m curious. Since last year I’ve tried to find things out about this death because I’m a fan of Jon and also it just didn’t fully sit right with me some of the things I did manage to find. I also know that there was an autopsy of his on the internet maybe around 2013 because when searching someone made a comment about how they read it but weirdly I myself have not found an autopsy OR a clear version at that, I’m assuming you’ve seen it but I’m not sure on how recent, if so where did you get yours? I’d be really interested to see it. You said a few things didn’t add up for you and I’d love to hear them. I’m intrigued I’ve been following it too and thought of myself as a bit of an expert too but I’m missing a lot of info because I simply haven’t been able to find it. So many people have made theories as to why he did what he did. On one thread I saw someone say that it’s thought to be rumoured that he was “joking” and the joke went wrong but a lot and I mean a lot of people have said how they find it all a little fishy and there’s deffo something more to it and i agree. People have also always brought up Leo/Leo’s group of friends and put a bit of the blame on him and never went into why they have so thank you for giving a back story on that a little
So sad that this young man died at a very young age.
He had a lot to live for.
Many cute child actors grow up to be plain-looking adults with regular jobs. It must be tough to have fame at a young age and then have to transition into a non-celebrity adult life, but they do it, at least most of them do, except Brandis.
I know you can read this Jonathan, i just want you to know that i will always love you, you are forever in my heart. I am always here for you if you ever want to be by my side. I pray for that moment where i am blessed by your presence. I will never forget you and i will never give up hope of finally meeting you some day. I love you mate. xoxoxo
Oh, my.
He’s dead. You won’t meet him. You can like an actor all you want but you’re talking a little cray cray right now buddy.
I have to agree. That was a little... curious. BTW, given the body of work left by the late Mr. Brandis, I have to be a little suspicious of grown men who identify as fans. God rest his tormented soul, he wasn't exactly Richard Burton or Anthony Hopkins. Rarely (never) has anyone ever finished watching a film and said "That was FANTASTIC! But you know what? It would have been even better with the late Jonathan Brandis in the starring role!"
Only at: findadeath.com
Financial ruin?
Career ruin?
Losing looks?
Romantic relationship(s)?
Mixing medications?
Secret mental illness?
Secret terminal illness?
Secret substance addiction struggles?
Secret sexual orientation struggles?
Whatever the real reason(s) is; he will be remembered always and forever.
I also can't help but wonder if he'd still be here had George Lucas chose Jonathan Brandis' audition over Hayden Christensen's for the role of Anakin in Star Wars...
If he decided to lull himself because he lost out on an acting gig then he was never mentally sound to begin with.
Hey I’m confused. Idk if anyone will see my comment but does anyone have a clearer photograph of the death certificate because from what I can see it says where I’m assuming it says age of death, the number there is 57?? So is there any clearer pics of this anywhere and something married which I can not work out. Any replies would be appreciated :)
Maya, it looks like it reads "NEVER MARRIED," to me, although the N in Never almost looks like an S because of the blur of the type. I agree that the age box almost looks like 57, but I think that is the result of the same blurring of the type as in the marital status, as his DOB is clearly listed as 4/13/1976.
I always thought maybe he'd hoped someone would hear and save him? Maybe it was a cry for help? Maybe he really didn't mean it?..... Maybe he did. Maybe he was tired?.... I've been on both sides. You just never know what someone is thinking when they've had enough.
May God rest his sweet soul. Whatever he was going through, he was done. He was tired? He was broken. We are in no place to judge. He is finally at peace. Please leave him be. Let him rest in peace. ❤️🌹
God bless you, Carrie. You are a sweet person. Steve
This whole thing seems sketchy to me. First, who commits suicide by hanging with a group of friends in their apartment? Second, how did the friends not know what he was doing...I don’t go to my friends house and hang out, without my friend there....so how did they hang out in his apartment while he was hanging in the hallway? What the hell were they doing inside his apartment if he wasn’t in there, too? And why didn’t any check on him (it was his apartment) until so much later....this is so odd, because most people don’t commit suicide like this.
A lot of stars friends aren’t really friends. They’re more like people that want to have a good time on their dime. I can totally see no one even realizing he wasn’t there because they were selfishly partying in his apartment.
Really? If I’m at a friend’s house and they leave to use the bathroom, go on a beer run, change clothes etc. I stay. It’s not uncommon, especially for close friends. They obviously didn’t know what he was about to do. Maybe they thought he stepped outside to smoke or for something fresh air?