Rip Torn’s Cause of Death Revealed

New details have emerged surrounding the death of Rip Torn, who passed away in July at 88 years old.

According to his death certificate, obtained by TMZ, the actor died “due to (or as a consequence of) Alzheimer’s dementia.”

Torn passed away at his Connecticut home, surrounded by his wife, actress Amy Wright, and two of his daughters.

The star was later laid to rest at a cemetery in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Known for his volatility on and off set, Torn was a trained Shakespearean actor who was in the original Broadway production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955) and was Tony-nominated for “Sweet Bird of Youth” (1959).

Rip was nominated for an Emmy six times, winning once for his role on “The Larry Sanders Show” (1992-1998).

Along with his popular turn on “Sanders,” Torn made many guest appearances on TV series and in made-for-TV movies from 1956 through 2016, most notably opposite Ingrid Bergman in 1961’s “Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman’s Life,” and in acclaimed arcs on “Will & Grace” (2002) and “30 Rock” (2007-2009), the latter of which earned him an Emmy nomination.

In movies, his biggest success was in the “Men in Black” franchise (1997-2012), but overall, his film work was possibly the most eclectic of any actor in history, including war movies like “Time Limit” (1957) and “Pork Chop Hill” (1959); experimental fare like the sexually provocative “Coming Apart” (1969) and the David Bowie vehicle “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976); esteemed dramas like “Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962), “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” (1979), and “Cross Creek” (1983), for which he received his lone Oscar nomination; clever comedies like “Defending Your Life” (1991); and a slew of farcical works that sometimes landed, as with “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” (2004), and sometimes did not, as with “The Legend of Awesomest Maximus” (2011).

Torn’s final on-camera appearance was as his “Men in Black” character for an Air New Zealand safety video in 2015, and his final work was a voice role on “TripTank” (2016).

Torn married three actresses: Ann Wedgeworth, from whom he was divorced; Geraldine Page, in a nearly 25-year union that ended with her untimely death; and Wright, to whom he had been married 30 years at the time of his passing. He is survived by Wright, six children, four grandchildren, and a sister.

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