Nearly a month after his passing, famed horror actor Sid Haig‘s official cause of death has been revealed. According to Haig’s Ventura County, California-issued death certificate, obtained by TMZ, the 80-year died of cardiorespiratory arrest, with a number of other issues – respiratory failure, aspiration and aspergillus (mold) pneumonia, a “small bowel obstruction,” and COPD – listed as contributing factors.
Haig, best known for portraying the psychotic clown Captain Spaulding in 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses, 2005’s The Devil’s Rejects, and this year’s 3 From Hell, passed away in late September, though according to those close to the actor, his health had been in decline in the months leading up to his death.
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Reprising his iconic character in Rob Zombie’s 3 From Hell, which wrapped production in April of 2018 and had a limited theatrical release just days before Haig’s death, Haig’s screen time had to be dramatically reduced to little more than a cameo after he was hospitalized just weeks before filming began.
“The movie that I prepped to make, and was getting ready to start shooting, it was Captain Spaulding, Otis and Baby, the three originals,” Zombie told Entertainment Weekly prior to the film’s debut. “But three weeks out from shooting, I got a call from Sid Haig. He had been in the hospital, and he had just had surgery, and he was now recovering in a rehabilitation facility.”
“A lot of the scenes with Foxy were supposed to be Spaulding and I twisted things around so I didn’t have to rewrite every single thing,” he said.
Haig was again hospitalized in early September after he suffered a “nasty spill” at his home. He was placed in the ICU with breathing complications, his wife, Susan L. Oberg, asking for “prayers” before announcing on Sept. 21 that her husband had passed away.
“On Saturday, September 21, 2019, my light, my heart, my true love, my King, the other half of my soul, Sidney, passed from this realm on to the next,” Oberg wrote at the time. “He has returned to the Universe, a shining star in her heavens.”
“He was my angel, my husband, my best friend and always will be. He adored his family, his friends and his fans,” she continued. “This came as a shock to all of us. We, as a family, are asking that our privacy and time to mourn be respected.”
Born Sidney Eddy Mosesian, Haig broke into the entertainment industry as a drummer before landing a role Jack Hill’s UCLA student film The Host, kick starting a decades-long acting career that would see him starring in a number of high-profile films.
