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Demme Autopsy Inconclusive
That's all the Los Angeles Coroner's Office is able to state following an autopsy on the director, whose sudden death Sunday stunned Hollywood. Toxicology tests and a thorough look at the burly 38-year-old's medical history--a process which could take several weeks--will now be conducted.
Demme was pronounced dead Sunday at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. He had been brought to the hospital in full cardiac arrest after collapsing at a celebrity basketball game at nearby Crossroads School.
The popular director of films such as the Denis Leary kidnapping satire The Ref, the Martin Lawrence-Eddie Murphy prison comedy Life and the Johnny Depp drug saga Blow had seemed destined to become as well-known and admired as his uncle, Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme.
A former football lineman in college, Ted Demme was less than six feet but, according to the coroner's office, "in excess of 200 pounds." He reportedly played basketball as often as five times a week.
He was known to joke about his shape and size. In a 1998 interview with the Los Angeles Times he said, "It's an encouraging thing that studios are hiring, big, husky guys...We're the minority that has been deprived of work for years. The millennium will be good for the husky. Watch out, you skinny bums."
Demme didn't have time to begin working on his next directing project, a sea-based thriller called Nautica starring Ewan McGregor and Heath Ledger. However, he can be glimsped in a cameo in the upcoming New Line-Evolution Entertainment film John Q, which stars Denzel Washington as a desperate father whose limited medical insurance doesn't cover his son's need for a heart transplant.
During a montage scene featuring celebrity reaction to the case, Demme is shown in a clip from Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. The director doesn't speak, but he is identified by an on-screen caption. According to several reporters and critics who attended a preview screening Monday, the audience audibly gasped when Demme flashed on the screen. Not only had Demme died a day earlier, but he was now in a film about--ironically--someone with heart problems.
John Q was directed by Nick Cassavetes, a close friend of Demme's, who described his late pal to the Los Angeles Times as "the most generous person. It was like he was your college buddy. I think he was everybody's best friend."
When asked Wednesday if the Demme clip would remain in the film, a producer at Evolution Entertainment said the scene was "definitely" going to stay. The film hits theaters February 15.
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