Irvine police have shared new details about the death of Christian Cousins, the former child actor who starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop. Cousins, 43, was found dead at his Southern California home on Oct. 20 after relatives who had been unable to reach him asked officers to check on him.
An Irvine Police Department spokesperson told People that officers responded to the welfare check shortly after noon and found Cousins inside the home. Police said they saw no signs of suspicious circumstances. The Orange County Sheriff's Department coroner responded to the scene, and an official cause of death has yet to be released.
Cousins' half-brother, Jonas Roeser, shared news of the death in an Oct. 22 Instagram tribute. Roeser said Cousins had been very ill with liver disease and described him as a man with big stories and even bigger dreams. He said he took comfort in believing his brother was "now in heaven with his mother, free from the pain he was carrying."
Roeser grew up in Washington while Christian and his twin brother, Joseph "Joey" Cousins, grew up in California. He said he first knew the twins through their work on screen, watching them in Knots Landing and Kindergarten Cop. He met them in person when he was in college.
Christian and Joseph shared the role of Dominic Palmieri in Ivan Reitman's 1990 comedy. Schwarzenegger played John Kimble, a detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher. Penelope Ann Miller played Dominic's mother, Joyce. The twins also shared the role of Bobby Gibson Ewing on the prime-time drama Knots Landing. Christian's other credits included Critters 3, Intruders and Twin Sitters.
Christian stepped away from acting and went into the furniture business, a career he discussed during a virtual Kindergarten Cop cast reunion in December 2020. Schwarzenegger surprised his former castmates by joining the call, giving Cousins a chance to joke with him about the film. Thirty years after its release, he thanked Schwarzenegger for saving Dominic in the locker-room scene.
