'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' actor Nicholas Brendon dies at 54

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Nicholas Brendon, an actor best known for his role as a loveable underdog sidekick on the hit television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died. He was 54.

Brendon's family announced the death in a statement posted on his social media accounts Friday. They said he died in his sleep of natural causes, but did not say where or when it happened.

Brandon played Xander Harris, a close friend of lead character Buffy, on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” that ran from 1997 to 2003. The supernatural series, which started on the WB network and then moved to UPN, was about vampire slayers, led by the teenager Buffy, who battled a wide range of demons, werewolves and other dark forces while also navigating life in high school.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” based on the movie of the same name, never received many awards, but it has been cited by many critics as being one of the most influential shows in TV history.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy on the show, posted a photo of herself with Brendon on Instagram on Saturday.

“I saw you Nicky,” she wrote. “I know you are at peace, in that big rocking chair in the sky.”

Brendon also appeared on the TV show “Criminal Minds" between 2007 and 2014 and alongside Bradley Cooper in the Fox sitcom “Kitchen Confidential,” an adaptation of Anthony Bourdain’s memoir, that aired for just one season in 2005.

Brendon was in the films “Redwood” in 2017, “The Nanny” in 2018 and “Christmas Slasher" in 2024.

Brendon also wrote several issues of the Buffy comic book series.

While Brendon was best known as an actor, his family said in their statement that in recent years he found his passion in painting and art.

“He was passionate, sensitive, and endlessly driven to create,” the statement said. “Those who truly knew him understood that his art was one of the purest reflections of who he was.”

Brendon announced in 2023 that he had suffered a heart attack. He also underwent two spinal surgeries for a rare nerve compression condition called cauda equina syndrome that can lead to pain and weakness in the lower body.

Brendon also openly talked about his battle with depression and appeared on two 2015 episodes of “Dr. Phil” to discuss his struggles with alcohol and mental health and a string of arrests for public intoxication, vandalism and domestic violence.

His family said that while Brendon “had struggled in the past,” he was on medication and treatment to manage his diagnosis and was “optimistic about the future.”