Gay wrestler Chris Kanyon is dead at age 40
Chris Kanyon
NEW YORK – Chris Kanyon, the openly gay professional wrestler, has apparently committed suicide. He was 40.
Kanyon, whose real name is Chris Klucsarits, reportedly died from an intentional overdose of pills at his home in Queens on Friday, authorities said.
Kanyon was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after his first suicide attempt in 2003. He suffered through serious bouts of depression, telling family members and close friends early last week that he was going through another bout and also talked of taking his life.
In an interview with Outsports News in 2006, Kanyon spoke of knowing that he was gay when he was 11. Outsports News quoted him as saying that he realized “I was gay, that I would be gay for the rest of my life and that my life would not be easy.”
Kanyon earned a degree in physical therapy from the University of Buffalo and only stopped working as a physical therapist to become a wrestler.
He made his wrestling debut in 1992 and got a big break in late 1994 when he worked as a jobber in the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and then the WWF (World Wrestling Federation).
In 1997 he joined the tag team “Men at Work” with Mark Starr and the WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and shortly thereafter debuted as “Mortis,” perhaps his most famous gimmick.
He stayed with the WCW through its absorption by the WWE in 2001 and went on to win the WCW US Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship according to PW News Now. He was released from his contract with the WWE in 2004.
He told Outsports News about how miserable he was to not be able to share his feelings and emotions about being gay with anyone.
“The better my career got the more miserable I got personally because I had no one to share it with. Eventually, I started blaming wrestling because, in my mind, it was wrestling that forced me into the closet,” Kanyon told Outsports News.
Kanyon said he believed that if he had gay role models to look up to as a child that he wouldn’t have forced himself into the closet.
