Christian Cousins, the former child actor who played Dominic Palmieri in the 1990 film “Kindergarten Cop,” has died. He was 43 years old.
The actor’s half-brother, Jonas Roeser, announced the death on social media last month, writing that Cousins ”was very ill with a liver disease.”
Cousins and his twin brother, Joseph, starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Kindergarten Cop,” with the boys swapping portrayals of Dominic, the son of a dangerous drug dealer who had gone into hiding with his mother, Joyce. Schwarzenegger’s character, a Los Angeles police detective, goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher, falls in love with fellow teacher Joyce, and becomes a father figure to Dominic.
“It’s difficult to announce that my brother, Christian Cousins, has passed away,” Roeser wrote on Instagram. “Christian and his twin brother, Joseph ‘Joey’ Cousins, are my brothers through my biological father. They grew up in California while I was in Washington and I didn’t know them until college.
Roeser wrote that he grew up watching the twins on the CBS soap opera “Knots Landing,” but that the acting roles were “only a small part of how I will remember Christian.”
“He was a character full of passion and energy, with big stories and even bigger dreams,” Roeser wrote, adding that “it comforts me to believe that he is now in heaven with his mother, free from the pain he carried.”
“Rest in peace, Christian,” he wrote. “I hope your soul is at rest and that you have found peace. You are my brother and we will miss you.”
According to Cousins’ Facebook page, he lived in East Irvine and had health issues in recent years. Alongside a 2017 photo showing him brazenly lighting up two cigarillos, he commented years later: “The good old days when I could be skinny and smoke two Bay Shermans in one hand. Now I regret everything.”
Born March 17, 1983, in Orange County, Cousins grew up in Laguna Niguel. He and his twin brother shared television and film roles in the ’80s and ’90s, including their portrayal of Bobby Ewing in “Knots Landing” from 1987 to 1993. Cousins also starred in the films “Twin Sitters” and “Critters 3” and the television shows “Eerie, Indiana,” “Empty Nest” and “Intruders.”
During a 2020 “Kindergarten Cop” Zoom meeting with the cast hosted by Yahoo, Cousins described his experience acting in some of the film’s most intense scenes.
“I remember having to act more scared than I had ever been on camera up to that point in my career… it was actually a little difficult because even though my dad seems like a mean guy, Richard Tyson, he’s like the nicest guy in the world in person,” he said. “It was really hard to be afraid of someone who, after every scene, (says), ‘That was great, you did a great job!'”
Cousins was 7 years old when he filmed “Kindergarten Cop” and after the film hit theaters, Cousins said he was recognized and mobbed for autographs at malls, airports and at Disneyland. He remembers a busload of kids at the amusement park waiting in line and asking for personalized notes. He was so young that he had trouble spelling “beautiful.”
During the reunion, Cousins also revealed that he had retired from acting and was working in the furniture business.
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