By April MacIntyre Apr 1, 2009, 15:13 GMT
Actor Andy Hallett, who portrayed a demon karaoke singer in the television series "Angel," died Sunday night at a Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai hospital. He was 33.
According to the Associated Press, Mr. Hallett had used the 911 emergency service because of shortness of breath he experienced earlier that day,
Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner, told the Los Angeles Times that Andy was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:35 p.m.
According to their report, an autopsy is planned.
He was diagnosed with heart disease in 2004, said his agent, Pat Brady.
Mr. Hallett was a native of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He grew up in Osterville and graduated from Barnstable High School.
"The first time I sang out loud in front of other people was in Boston at Harborlights when Patti Labelle was there," he told the Boston Globe in 2000.
When Andy received applause and requests for his photographs, he realized that "It was really a life-changing experience," he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Producer and writer Joss Whedon discovered Andy singing, and subsequently cast him in his "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff "Angel" as the host of a karaoke bar who can read souls and who moonlights as a detective.
"He's a Dean Martin-y lounge lizard, smarmy in a suit jacket, very flamboyant," Mr. Hallett told the Boston Globe. "But he's a good demon."
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