He was never just another pretty face on daytime TV. Colleagues talk about a man who carried other people’s anxieties as carefully as his own lines, someone who treated the crew with the same reverence as the camera. Success hovered at the edges of his career, but it never hardened him; instead, he became the kind of person who made everyone else feel like they were finally seen. That’s what makes the stillness of his absence feel so violently wrong: a life built on connection, silenced in a room where no one knew to knock.

In the days since, the tributes have taken on the shape of a warning. His friends aren’t just mourning; they’re pleading. They want you to stop believing that your worst thoughts make you a burden, or that asking for help is some unforgivable weakness. They want you to call, to text, to speak before the silence closes in. In the United States, you can reach the 988 Lifeline any time, day or night; if you’re elsewhere, look up your country’s crisis line now, and save it. Not because you plan to use it—but because one day, you or someone you love might need a way back from the edge.