Former child actor Christian Cousins dies at 43

Christian Cousins, who played Dominic Palmieri in the 1990 film "Kindergarten Cop," died at age 43, his half-brother Jonas Roeser announced on social media. Roeser said Cousins had been very sick with liver disease.

Cousins and his twin brother Joseph shared the role of Dominic, the son of a drug dealer, in the movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The twins also appeared together on the CBS soap opera "Knots Landing" from 1987 to 1993, portraying Bobby Ewing.

Roeser posted on Instagram that he grew up watching the twins on television and remembered Christian as “a character, full of passion and energy, with big stories and even bigger dreams.” He added that he hopes Cousins is now at peace.

According to Cousins’ Facebook page, he lived in East Irvine and had faced health challenges in recent years. A 2017 photograph showed him smoking cigarillos, and a later comment reflected regret about that habit.

Born on March 17, 1983, in Orange County and raised in Laguna Niguel, Cousins appeared in several films and TV shows, including "Twin Sitters," "Critters 3," "Eerie, Indiana," "Empty Nest" and "Intruders." In a 2020 Zoom reunion of the "Kindergarten Cop" cast, he recalled the difficulty of acting scared opposite co-star Richard Tyson, who was friendly off-camera. He also described the intense fan attention he received as a child actor and noted that he had retired from acting to work in the furniture business.