Angus Cloud, right, poses with Zendaya at a party organized by Vanity Fair magazine in 2022. Matt Winkelmeyer (Getty Images)
Angus Cloud, one of the protagonists of the hit series Euphoria, died of an accidental overdose. This is the result of the autopsy conducted by the Alameda County Coroner’s Office. Authorities found traces of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamines and benzodiazepines in the 25-year-old actor’s blood. Cloud, who played a drug dealer in two seasons of the HBO drama, was found dead in his Oakland home on July 31. His family then assured that the interpreter was experiencing a severe loss due to his father’s death from cancer.
Days after Cloud’s death, his mother Lisa took to social media to address rumors that the actor had committed suicide. “Some publications on the Internet say that his death was deliberate. I want you to know it wasn’t like that,” his mother wrote on Facebook.
Since then, Lisa has suspected that the death was caused by a deadly drug cocktail. “We may know that he was the victim of an accidental and tragic overdose, but it is abundantly clear that he had no intention of leaving this world,” he added in the message. Two months later, toxicological analysis confirmed the mother’s suspicions.
Fentanyl, a powerful opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin, has caused an epidemic in the United States. Although there is no official data yet, the country’s health authorities estimate that two-thirds of the more than 107,000 overdoses recorded in 2022 were caused by this substance. Drugs have flooded the streets of the country’s main cities and combating them is a headache at all levels of government.
Cloud’s death joins a long list of celebrities who have died from the powerful drug, which is legal and used to treat extreme pain in some cancer patients. These include the legendary singer Prince, Michael Williams, the actor from “The Wire”, another HBO hit, as well as the rappers Mac Miller and Coolio.
With a fleeting career, Cloud owed his fame to a chance encounter. A casting agent discovered him by chance while walking the streets of Manhattan. The young man was a theater student who appeared in a small independent film in 2019 and appeared briefly in music videos by Noah Cyrus and Mamiii, Karol G and Becky G.
Euphoria propelled him to stardom. His interpretation of Fez, a sensitive human trafficker, captured the show’s young audience. This caused the series showrunner Sam Levinson to change his plans for the character, who would die in the first season. However, the author emphasized the character’s importance for the second season and made him one of the pillars of the program, especially in the final episode, which aired in December 2022. The third season will be released sometime in 2025.
“There was no one like Angus. “He was special, talented and too young to leave us so quickly,” Levinson said when news of Cloud’s death broke. The actor leaves behind a few posthumous films. One of them is a thriller called Radio Silence, which will be released by Universal in April 2024. Another film, Your Lucky Day, is still in post-production.