Christian Cousins, the former child actor who starred as Dominic Palmieri in the 1990 movie “Kindergarten Cop,” has died. He was 43.
The actor’s half-brother, Jonas Roeser, announced the death on social media last month, writing that Cousins “had been very sick with liver disease.”
Cousins and his twin brother, Joseph, starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Kindergarten Cop,” with the boys trading off in their portrayal of Dominic, the son of a dangerous drug dealer who had gone into hiding with his mother, Joyce. Schwarzenegger’s character, a Los Angeles police detective, goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher, falls for fellow teacher Joyce and becomes a father figure to Dominic.
“It’s hard to share that my brother, Christian Cousins, has passed away,” Roeser wrote on Instagram. “Christian and his twin brother, Joseph ‘Joey’ Cousins, are my brothers through my biological father. They grew up in California while I was in Washington and I didn’t get to know them until I was in college.
Roeser wrote that he grew up watching the twins on the CBS soap opera “Knots Landing” but that the acting roles were “only a small part of how I’ll remember Christian.”
“He was a character, full of passion and energy, with big stories and even bigger dreams,” Roeser wrote, adding that it “brings me comfort to believe he is now in heaven with his mother, free from the pain he was carrying.”
“Rest easy, Christian,” he wrote. “I hope your soul is at rest and that you’ve found peace. You are my brother and you will be missed.”
According to Cousins’ Facebook page, he was living in East Irvine and has struggled with health issues in recent years. Alongside a 2017 photograph of him cheekily lighting two cigarillos, he commented years later: “The good old days when I could be thin and smoke two bay Sherman’s in one hand. Now I’m regretting it all.”
Born March 17, 1983, in Orange County, Cousins was raised in Laguna Niguel. He and his twin brother shared roles across television and film in the ’80s and ’90s, including their portrayal of Bobby Ewing in “Knots Landing” from 1987 to 1993. Cousins also starred in the movies “Twin Sitters” and “Critters 3,” and the TV shows “Eerie, Indiana,” “Empty Nest” and “Intruders.”
During a “Kindergarten Cop” reunion Zoom call with the cast in 2020 hosted by Yahoo, Cousins described his experience acting in some of the most intense scenes of the film.
“I remember having to act more scared than I’d ever been on camera thus far in my career . . . it was actually a little difficult because despite how evil it seems my dad is, which is Richard Tyson — he’s like the nicest guy in the world in person,” he said. “It was really hard to act scared of somebody who after every scene [said] ‘That was awesome; you did great!’”
Cousins was 7 when he filmed “Kindergarten Cop,” and after the film hit theaters, Cousins said he was recognized and swarmed for autographs at shopping malls, airports and at Disneyland. He recalled a bus full of kids at the amusement park lining up and asking for personalized notes. He was so young that he struggled to spell “beautiful.”
During the reunion, Cousins also revealed that he had retired from acting and was working in the furniture business.