UPDATE as of 4/5/19 11:12am: A source close to Kristoff shows in a new report that the actor had checked himself into UCLA Medical Center in January for depression issues ... and had just been released within the last few days.
They were told his depression was linked, in part, to his son, Julian's suicide years ago. In fact, any sort of loss such as loss of a job, loss of a relationship, etc can trigger depression and suicidal thoughts. More information is still being gathered about Kristoff's death.
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---------------------------Original Article Below---------------------------------
Actor Kristoff St. John, who played the handsome, loveable long-running character, Neil Winters, for 27 years on the "Young and the Restless," has died. He was 52.
Los Angeles police were called to his home Sunday and his body was turned over to the coroner. The cause of death was not immediately available Monday.
St. John had played Neil Winters on the CBS soap opera since 1991, earning nine daytime Emmy nominations. He won a Daytime Emmy in 1992 for outstanding younger actor in a drama series and won 10 NAACP Image Awards.
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St. John was twice married and divorced and was the father of a son and two daughters. His 24-year-old son, Julian, died in 2014. On Jan. 21, St. John retweeted "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."
In 2015, Kristoff filed a lawsuit against the mental health facility where his son Julian St. John tragically committed suicide in November 2014.
In 2016, Kristoff and Julian’s mother Mia sat down with both Entertainment Tonight and the T.D. Jakes Show to discuss their son’s death and the impending lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that staff members of the La Casa Psychiatric Health Facility skipped the required mandatory check-ins and observations of Julian, who was on suicide watch. The staff also reportedly falsified documents in order to cover up the neglect. Then, in October 2017, Kristoff sent a picture of himself with a gun to his head threatening to kill himself and Mia is the one who called the police.
Mia spoke on the circumstances surrounding Julian’s death:
“What we do know is he attempted suicide two and a half weeks prior to when he actually completed it and he was supposed to be on suicide watch. He was left with the very same instrument that he used to attempt suicide.”
The day Julian committed suicide, video surveillance showed that...
... not only was his door closed (which isn’t allowed for people on suicide watch) but that none of the staff had checked on Julian for almost an hour.
Kristoff feels the facility was negligent in its supervision of his son — and if the staff had “acted with even the slighted regard for Julian’s safety, he would still be alive today.”
Many believe that Kristoff went into a deep depression after Julian's death which could have triggered his own attempt to kill himself in 2017.
Despite all that, St. John announced in September 2018 that he was engaged to model Kseniya Mikhaleva.
"So early.....so early," she wrote in her Instagram Stories. "Why you leave so early????Why...you are always in my heart."
CBS and Sony Pictures Television said in a joint statement that St. John's death is heartbreaking.
"He was a very talented actor and an even better person. For those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him on 'The Young and the Restless' for the last 27 years, he was a beloved friend whose smile and infectious laugh made every day on set a joy and made audiences love him," the statement said.
