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Kristoff St. John, star of ‘Young & the Restless,’ dead at 52

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN)- Kristoff St. John, who played Neil Winters on the CBS daytime soap opera “The Young & the Restless,” has died, according to his attorney Mark Geragos. He was 52. A cause of death has not yet been released.

Born in New York City, St. John — the son of actor Christopher St. John — entered the industry at a young age.

According to his show’s cast bio, Kristoff St. John made his television debut at age 7 in the series, “That’s My Mama.”

He went on to star in the series “Charlie & Company” with Flip Wilson, Gladys Knight and Della Reese, and later had roles in “The Bad News Bears” and “The San Pedro Beach Bums.”

St. John also had a recurring role on “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” and made appearances on other TV shows, including “Diagnosis Murder,” “Arli$$,” “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “Martin,” and “Living Single.”

His turn as Denise Huxtable’s vegetarian boyfriend David James, who crossed swords with her parents on an episode of “The Cosby Show,” was one of St. John’s most fondly remembered performances

https://youtu.be/Fu8Fm6CobmQ

St. John joined the cast of “The Young & the Restless” in 1991. His character’s love story with Drucilla Winters (played by Victoria Rowell) became a favorite among fans of the show. In real life, St. John dealt with drama that could have rivaled a soap opera. His family’s involvement with the guru Sathya Sai Baba led to the documentary “A Man Called God.” St. John said during a 2014 interview with CBS that his family had been Hindu and his stepmother discovered the guru.

“Coming out of the ’60s and ’70s you had people who were really yearning and searching for God,” he said. “My parents got caught up in it and I did too.” In 2014, St. John’s 24-year-old son Julian died while a patient La Casa Psychiatric Health Facility in Long Beach, California.

The actor and his ex-wife, Mia, later filed suit against the facility.

St. John told “Entertainment Tonight” in 2017 that he was “angry” about the final footage the facility captured on video of his son.

“I watched it the first time, I’ll never watch it again,” he said. “It’s not something I want to see.”

He was open about his battles with depression following the death of his son and in 2017,Entertainment Weekly reported that the star had taken a leave of absence from his show to deal with mental health issues.

St. John’s last activity on Twitter was January 21 when he retweeted a post which read, “Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them.”

He was set to marry his model girlfriend, Kseniya Mikhaleva.

In September, he shared a photo of the engagement ring on his Instgram account with the photo caption, “She said yes.”

CNN’s Stella Chan contributed to this report

 

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