Brendon\u2019s family have told how he had a history of heart issues, including suffering a heart attack in 2023.<\/p>\n
Brendon \u2013 who played Xander Harris in the supernatural horror TV series \u2013 had also been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.<\/p>\n
Autopsy and toxicology results are yet to be released.<\/p>\n
Nicholas Brendon, known for playing Xander Harris in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had a history of heart issues. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The actor\u2019s family recently said he died \u201cin his sleep of natural causes\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement shared on Brendon\u2019s Instagram page, his family wrote: \u201cWe are heartbroken to share the passing of our brother and son, Nicholas Brendon. He passed in his sleep of natural causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people know Nicky for his work as an actor and for the characters he brought to life over the years. In recent years Nicky has found his passion in painting and art.<\/p>\n
\u201cNicky loved to share his enthusiastic talent with his family, friends and fans. He was passionate, sensitive and endlessly driven to create.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who truly knew him understood that his art was one of the purest reflections of who he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s no secret that Nicholas had struggles in the past, he was on medications and treatment to manage his diagnosis and he was optimistic about the future at the time of his passing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur family asks for privacy during this time as we grieve his loss and celebrate the life of a man who lived with intensity, imagination and heart. Thank you to everyone who has shown love and support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brendon played Buffy\u2019s friend Xander Harris in all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer \u2013 which aired from 1997 to 2003 \u2013 and featured alongside the likes of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter in all but one episode of the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendon\u2019s family have told how he had a history of heart issues, including suffering a heart attack in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8038,3225,3376,1975,92233,178742,1121,23604,16423,12629,690,634,156,52098,1874,1345,17709,111,139,24743,69,10538,5652,82314,684,73841],"class_list":["post-349335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-natural","tag-according","tag-actor","tag-at","tag-brendon","tag-buffy","tag-case","tag-causes","tag-cites","tag-coroner","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-entertainment","tag-foul","tag-found","tag-home","tag-investigating","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nicholas","tag-nz","tag-play","tag-signs","tag-slayer","tag-there","tag-vampire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}