Actress Margaux Hemingway killed herself with an overdose of barbiturates, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said on Tuesday, adding her name to the list of Hemingway family members who have committed suicide.
Hemingway had about twice the deadly level of phenobarbital in her system when she died – so much of the drug that she succumbed before she could even digest all the pills, coroner’s officials said.
The findings came six weeks after Hemingway’s body was found by friends in her studio apartment, a half block from the beach in Santa Monica.
Police found no note or other evidence of suicide on July 1, leaving the cause of Hemingway’s death a mystery.
Highly publicized bouts with depression and alcoholism led to speculation that the 41-year-old actress had taken her own life. Her famous grandfather, author Ernest Hemingway, killed himself 35 years ago with a shotgun blast to the head. His father, brother and sister also committed suicide.
It took a series of toxicology tests to confirm the presence of a massive dose of the sedative in Hemingway’s system – 10 times the amount that would be present from a prescribed dose. The equivalent of two pills remained undissolved in her stomach, the coroner’s office said.
“The high level of phenobarbital found in her system was the key finding that led to a determination that it was suicide,” said Scott Carrier, spokesman for the coroner’s office.
Coroner’s investigators also revealed new details of the circumstances surrounding Hemingway’s death.
Just days before her body was discovered, for instance, the actress had been asking friends if they knew where she could obtain phenobarbital. She said she needed the drug for a trip to Germany, where she was scheduled to film a TV program. Hemingway had a prescription for another medication, clonazepam, that epilepsy patients use to control seizures. But she had no prescription for phenobarbital. The two medications would typically not be given in combination, coroner’s officials said.
Coroner’s officials said they will continue their investigation in an attempt to find out who supplied Hemingway with the pills that killed her.
Hemingway had sprung to fame at 19 as a model, traveling from her native Idaho to New York, where she quickly became the $1 million spokeswoman for “Babe” perfume. But a fast life that ranged from Manhattan’s Studio 54 disco to the palaces of Europe was short-circuited by two divorces, alcoholism and bulimia.
A comeback in this decade began with a photo spread in Playboy. If she was no longer a household name, Hemingway had found steady work in B movies and infomercials.
Her family could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
