Actor and rapper Deezer D, who starred in 190 episodes of ER as Nurse Malik McGrath from 1994 to 2009, has died age 55.
TMZ reports that Deezer, whose real name is Dearon Thompson, was found unresponsive at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday morning. His brother Marshawn has said that it is believed that he died from a heart attack, although an official cause of death has yet to be announced. He previously underwent a major surgery on his heart back in 2009.
"I have a heart valve that is leaking and the aorta had expanded to way beyond what it is supposed to be," he told Radar Online of the surgery at the time, the Daily Mirror reports. "As soon as the doctor identified what was going on, he put me in here... What I was going through for the last year—that was scary. I’m fearless about the surgery."
Besides from his work on ER, he also showed up in the movies Cool as Ice, CB4, Fear of a Black Hat, and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. He also released three Christian oriented rap albums in his career, with his most recent full-length effort arriving in 2008. He recently revived his interest in rapping with a single entitled "History Cant Be Stopped" this past week.
RIP.
