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Autopsy: Heart Disease, Alcohol Contributed To Death Of 'Young And The Restless' Star Kristoff St. John

1:30 p.m. UPDATE: The L.A. County coroner's office has clarified that an autopsy determined Kristoff St. John's death was caused by heart disease, with alcohol serving as a "significant condition." A previous version of the story had stated that alcohol poisoning was one of the causes of his death, which the coroner says is not the case. 

WOODLAND HILLS (CBSLA) – Actor Kristoff St. John, best known for his longtime role on "The Young and the Restless," died from heart disease, with alcohol as a contributing factor, the Los Angeles County coroner's office reported Tuesday. His death was determined to be an accident.

On the afternoon of Feb. 3, the 52-year-old St. John was found dead at his home in the 23000 block of Morea Way in the Woodland Hills, according to the Los Angeles police.

Kristoff St. John
Actor Kristoff St. John onstage during the 44th NAACP Image Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on February 1, 2013 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards)

The results of an autopsy indicated the cause of death was "hypertrophic heart disease," the coroner's office reported.

"Other significant conditions: myocardial bridging of left anterior descending coronary artery and effects of ethanol. The manner of death has been certified as an accident."

For his role as Neil Winters on the CBS soap opera, St. John won two Daytime Emmy Awards, the first in 1992 and the second in 2008. He has also won several NAACP awards.

He got his start as an actor as a child in the miniseries "Roots: The Next Generation." He has also appeared on "Happy Days," as Denise Huxtable's boyfriend on "The Cosby Show," and later on the soap opera "Generations."

St. John recently got engaged to model Kseniya Olegovna Mikhaleva and the couple had planned to marry in the fall.

St. John reportedly struggled since the 2014 suicide of his son, Julian. His last activity on Twitter was to retweet a message that said, "Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them." St. John had replied, "Never a truer word was spoke. Thanks for posting this."

In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Tonight, a distraught and tearful St. John said the call he got about his son's death, "the worst call I've ever had in my life."

St. John is survived by two daughters, Paris and Lola.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

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