Christian Cousins, the former child actor who starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, died last month after a battle with liver disease. He was 43.
Another kid Hollywood put to work, and another life cut short well before its time. Cousins and his twin brother Joseph were just five years old when they landed their first gig on Highway to Heaven in 1988. By seven, they were sharing the role of Dominic in a major studio comedy. By twelve, their acting careers were over. By 43, Christian was dead.
His half-brother, Jonas Roeser, announced the death on Instagram October 22. "Christian had been very sick with liver disease," Roeser wrote. "It brings me comfort to believe he is now in heaven with his mother, free from the pain he was carrying. Rest easy, Christian. I hope your soul is at rest and that you've found peace."
Roeser said he didn't meet Christian and Joseph until college — the brothers grew up in California while he was in Washington. "Before that, I grew up watching them on television in Knots Landing and the lead role of Dominic in Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwarzenegger," he wrote. "But those roles are only a small part of how I'll remember Christian. He was a character, full of passion and energy, with big stories and even bigger dreams."
Born March 17, 1983, in Orange County, the Cousins twins shared roles across nearly their entire childhoods — 88 episodes of CBS's Knots Landing as Bobby Gibson Ewing, plus appearances in Critters 3, Eerie, Indiana, Empty Nest, and the 1993 TV movie A Waltons Thanksgiving Reunion. Their final credit came in 1995's Twin Sitters. They were twelve.
At a 2020 Kindergarten Cop reunion hosted by Yahoo Entertainment, Christian said he had left acting and gone into the furniture business as an executive and co-owned a CBD business. Deadline reported that; Page Six didn't bother with what he made of the years after Hollywood was done with him.
Deadline also noted that news of his death was first reported by the New York Post. Both outlets covered the passing as a celebrity news item — another name from the 90s gone. Neither asked the obvious question.
Cousins is survived by his twin brother Joseph and half-brother Roeser. Complete survivor information was not immediately available.
The industry that put these boys to work before they could read has nothing to say now. It never does.
