Mayim Bialik Reveals ‘Call Me Kat’ Cast and Crew Learned of Leslie Jordan’s Death on Set Waiting for Him

It has been almost a full six months since the death of beloved actor and comedian Leslie Jordan. Now, his Call Me Kat co-star Mayim Bialik has opened up about the tragedy and revealed that the show’s cast and crew learned of Jordan’s death while they were on set waiting for him. The actress made the revelation during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, after the host stated she felt it was “beautiful” that the show honored Jordan’s “legacy and his memory” by keeping his character alive. “We were all at work and waiting for him to show up at work, so it was very, very, very complicated to have the whole crew there and the whole cast,” Bialik explained. 

“You know, we were a family,” she continued, noting that the sitcom’s “COVID unit” was “one of the first shows back, actually, after the lockdown.” Bialik added, “We were all very close, and people knew Leslie Jordan as Leslie Jordan, not necessarily just as the character he played on our show. He’s been in people’s lives, especially during COVID. He was in people’s Instagram feeds,” Bialik recalled with a smile. “A lot of people really formed a real connection with him, and he loved that. He loved being approachable. He loved being loved.” Finally, Hudson weighed in again, saying of Jordan, “He was a beautiful soul.”

Jordan died on Oct. 24, with TMZ reporting that the 64-year-old actor was involved in a car accident. He was said to have “suffered some sort of medical emergency” that may have caused him to crash his BMW into the side of a building in Hollywood. Following his death, it was reported that Jordan had complained he was experiencing shortness of breath, which was understandably concerning for the actor.

Sources close to Call Me Kat star stated that his health was enough of a concern that he’d scheduled an appointment to meet with a cardiologist. The outlet also noted that some first responders believed that Jordan may have suffered a heart attack. Three months later, his official cause of death was revealed by the Los Angeles Coroner, who determined that Jordan’s death was due to natural causes. The comedian suffered a “sudden cardiac dysfunction.” The coroner’s office also noted arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease as a secondary factor in his death.