Before Nicholas Brendon died in his sleep on March 20 at the age of 54, he rose to fame as Xander Harris in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter and David Boreanaz.
After becoming a star on the classic WB series, the “Criminal Minds” actor faced a complex mix of legal issues, cast drama and health issues before his tragic death.
Just a year after “Buffy” ended, the show ran from 1997 to 2003, Brendon entered rehab due to alcohol problems.
“After realizing the illness that was controlling my life, I decided that the best way to regain my health was to enter a treatment facility,” the 33-year-old said in a statement at the time, according to the Associated Press.
But six years later, after being charged with resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and criminal damage to property, he was sentenced to community service and probation on appeal, and he returned to a treatment facility.
Years later, the actor continued to have run-ins with the law. After his arrest in Boise, Idaho, in October 2014, Brendon was charged with misdemeanor counts of restraining or obstructing a police officer and malicious injury to property.
According to People, Brendon “showed signs of intoxication and repeatedly refused officers’ commands to sit down while they attempted to speak to witnesses” and was arrested after walking away from officers.
His next arrest took place shortly after he separated from his ex-wife Moonda Tee in February 2015. Police allege an inebriated actor ransacked a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hotel room and refused to pay $380 for food and drinks. He was charged with criminal mischief and grand larceny.
A few weeks later, in March 2015, he was arrested again for allegedly damaging a hotel room in Florida, which he later claimed was caused by depression and sexual abuse. He was arrested again in May 2015 in South Carolina, where he was held on charges of impairment and public intoxication.
Then, in June 2015, he again entered treatment for alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression.
In August of that year, he talked about going on “Dr. Phil” in a heated interview with a TV therapist.
“I’m the first to admit that I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve hurt the people I love who care about me,” he wrote via Facebook at the time, adding that during the interview, “I felt like Dr. Phil spoke to me about some of my recent mistakes without any build-up and told me right in the jugular.”
“From the beginning he wanted me to expose the darkest parts of myself on national television, and I’m not going to do that.”
In October 2015, Brendon ran into trouble again in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he was arrested and charged with difficulty breathing, two counts of criminal mischief and third-degree robbery after allegedly grabbing his girlfriend by the throat and damaging her cell phone as she tried to leave.
The actor later pleaded guilty to mischief charges.
Also in October, Brendon was arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend at a Palm Springs hotel. “During an argument at the bar, he pulled her arm and roughly pulled her hair,” Palm Springs Police Sergeant William Hutchinson told KESQ-TV.
After an altercation later that month, he returned to Florida for 90 days for treatment for depression.
“I love you all so much. I really appreciate your love and support,” he wrote via Facebook at the time, adding, “We will get through this.”
The following November, Brendon returned to Dr. Phil to confess. “I think I need more help than I thought. I just felt like this was the right thing to do,” he told the talk show host.
Brendon was charged with domestic violence for an incident in Palm Springs in May 2019 and sentenced to three years’ probation.
Cast drama surfaced in 2021, when Charisma Carpenter publicly accused Buffy creator Joss Whedon of alleged abuse on set, saying he “abused his power” and that Whedon “was a vampire.”
After initially remaining silent on the matter, the actor appeared to stand by Whedon against Carpenter and the late Michelle Trachtenberg, who made similar allegations in 2021, saying in his last Facebook video just days ago that Whedon had been treated “unfairly” by Hollywood in the wake of the allegations.
“Whenever I meet someone talking about Joss, I hope they take a moment to chew on it,” he said, sitting in his famous rocking chair on his porch.
“Joss was my mentor in so many aspects of my life, and to see how sad he is…” he trailed off, emotional. “It broke my heart.”
Brendon was also conspicuously absent from Buffy’s 20th anniversary special in 2017. Fans on social media speculated that the reason was due to a feud with David Boreanaz.
Brendon then threw some shade at the star of the show’s spin-off, Angel, in the book.
“It was weird that Angel would get a spinoff. How do you get a spinoff of the most boring character in TV history?” he told Evan Ross Katz, author of Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, in 2022.
“How about we break down Angel? Oh, no, nothing to break down. Just a brooding little guy. Angel is worse than those bastards in Twilight, in my opinion. I’m not sure if you’re talking about David or Angel at this point.”
Amidst the cast drama, Brendon’s legal troubles continued. He was arrested in August 2021 in Indiana on suspicion of using false information to obtain prescription drugs and charged with a felony count of prescription fraud.
According to documents obtained by TMZ at the time, the actor was pulled over for swerving off the road and failing to signal, and when the officer asked for identification, he handed over Kelton Schultz’s California ID and told him it was his brother.
He was released from the Vigo County Jail, but it is unclear whether the television personality has entered a plea in the case.
In September 2021, Brendon’s representatives revealed that he had “deep-seated medical issues and extreme pain” and suffered “genital paralysis” and leg problems after sleeping on concrete in prison.
His manager Theresa Fortier told the Daily Mail that he is “focused on his health” amid health concerns.
According to a post on his Instagram account that has since been deleted, Brendon was hospitalized for a “heart attack” in 2022.
A since-deleted series of photos from the same hospital in August 2022 read: “Nicki is doing well now, but had to be rushed to the hospital about two weeks ago due to a heart attack (tachycardia/arrhythmia).”
“Some of you may remember that he had a similar incident last year after his second spinal surgery (on Cauda Ema), but this time. He is trying to get some more rest and is concentrating on his medical appointments.”
Brendon’s representatives did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Despite the troubled actor’s troubles — and Geller’s explosive claim in a March 14 Facebook video that he “ruined the show,” referring to Buffy ending after seven seasons — the cast flooded social media with tributes to Brendon after his death.
“Nicki, I see you. I know you are resting peacefully in your big rocking chair in the sky,” Geller wrote on March 21.
