\n<\/p>\n
David Gail, the \u201cPort Charles\u201d and \u201cBeverly Hills, 90210\u201d actor who died in a Tampa, Fla. hospital on Jan. 16, had been intoxicated from a mix of drugs and alcohol that caused him to go into cardiac arrest, his publicist said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A number of drugs were found Mr. Gail\u2019s system, including amphetamines, cocaine, alcohol and fentanyl, according to a statement from the publicist, Linda Brown. The cardiac arrest led to a brain injury, which ultimately caused his death days later, she said.<\/p>\n
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner did not immediately respond to a request for Mr. Gail\u2019s autopsy report on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
The family previously said that Mr. Gail, 58, had died from complications from a sudden cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Paramedics who found Mr. Gail after he went into cardiac arrest performed CPR and used a defibrillator to try to revive him, but he ultimately wound up on life support at the hospital, according to Ms. Brown.<\/p>\n
Mr. Gail\u2019s mother, Mary Painter, said in the statement that her son had for years been reliant on medication to manage pain from hand and wrist surgeries that kept him out of work for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt breaks my heart to learn my son died this way,\u201d Ms. Painter said, adding, \u201cI can only assume that his former dependence played a part in self-medicating from uncontrolled sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her son\u2019s death, she said, highlighted victims of pharmaceutical addiction and the fentanyl epidemic.<\/p>\n
Mr. Gail had a bountiful television acting career in the mid- to late 1990s, including his most prominent role, as Dr. Joe Scanlon on the \u201cGeneral Hospital\u201d spinoff show \u201cPort Charles.\u201d Mr. Gail played Dr. Scanlon in 216 episodes in one season, which ran in 1999 and 2000, according to IMDb.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Years before that, Mr. Gail appeared on eight episodes of \u201cBeverly Hills, 90210,\u201d playing a minor part in an episode in the first season and returning to the show for the fourth season in a more established role.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came back it was such a shock, I was asking, \u2018How could I possibly come back?\u2019\u201d Mr. Gail said about his return on the \u201cBeverly Hills Show Podcast<\/a>\u201d in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it worked,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n He also made dozens of appearances in a variety of television shows throughout the 1990s and several films in the 2000s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n