LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Medical examiners conducted an autopsy on Wednesday on the body of actor Chris Penn but said they would be unable to determine how the 40-year-old brother of Oscar winner Sean Penn died until toxicology tests were complete.
Penn, found dead on Tuesday at his oceanside home in Santa Monica, west of Los Angeles, weighed more than 300 pounds and had a history of drug abuse, said Craig Harvey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
The autopsy, conducted hours before Penn's latest movie, "The Darwin Awards," premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, revealed no signs of foul play or suicide, pointing instead to natural or accidental causes of death, Harvey said.
"He does have a history of drug use," Harvey told Reuters. "We don't know how recent, or if any drug use occurred up to the time of his death. We just need to rule it out before we close the case."
He added: "It could be a contributing factor, it could be a primary factor or it could be not a factor at all."
Harvey said Penn's health may also have been a factor. Standing more than 6 feet tall, he weighed 310 pounds, the coroner's spokesman said. His body was found by a housekeeper in bed in the condominium where he lived alone.
A number of neighbours were quoted in the Santa Monica Daily Press newspaper as saying they had noticed Penn's health on the decline for several months.
"There was a lot of erratic behaviour, and I would see him in the middle of the day totally wasted," said one neighbour, identified only as Mike. "He'd get pretty amped up."
In one of his best-known performances, Penn played baby-faced criminal Nice Guy Eddie Cabot in director Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." He also co-starred with his brother in the 1986 film "At Close Range."
Chris Penn's latest film, co-starring Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder, opened Wednesday at Sundance. An official synopsis describes it as a comedy "about people who risk their lives pursing a crazy idea, only to wind up improving the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool, and thus earning a 'Darwin Award.'"
I always liked him, but sounds like he pretty much went down in flames. He was good in Footloose and Pale Rider.
