Deceased celeb doc suffered from depression
Frederic Brandt, dermatologist to the stars who built a big business with skin care products, was found dead in his Miami home over the weekend. He was 65.
The Miami Herald reports that Brandt was found in his Coconut Grove home by his housekeeper.
Miami police spokeswoman Frederica Burden told the Associated Press Brandt apparently hanged himself and that foul play is not suspected. An autopsy is planned.
Brandt's longtime publicist, Jacquie Tractenberg, told the AP he had suffered from depression for years. Recently, she said, he had been upset by a thinly veiled portrayal of him by actor Martin Short on the Tina Fey-produced Netflix show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
"It definitely bothered him. It was a very mean portrayal," she said. However, she added, "He didn't kill himself because of that one particular show."
Brandt, whose clients included Madonna and Stephanie Seymour, was not shy about experimenting, self-administering injections of Botox and other fillers through the decades, according to a New York Times profile last year, which described his skin as so "impressively smooth and so pale as to lend him a lunar aspect."
He was called "the baron of Botox" and launched his Dr. Brandt Skin Care line in 2001, wrote two successful skin care books and for four years hosted the Ask Dr. Brandt show on SiriusXM radio, with guests from Gwyneth Paltrow to Kelly Ripa.
Strangers often asked if he was from Sweden. "Actually," he replied, "I'm a Jewish kid from Newark."
He told the Times in that piece that his goal was "to keep people working and feeling vital and good about themselves. I want people to feel they haven't given up on life and are still in the game."
Contributing: Associated Press