“Child’s Play” star Ed Gale was suffering debilitating illnesses in the months leading up to his death, and he was on probation for solicitation of a minor … TMZ has learned.
Gale — who landed the part of Chucky in a few of the “Child’s Play” horror films — pled no contest to arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd purposes in March 2024, according to court records.
As part of his sentence, Gale was on probation and had to register as a sex offender and enroll in sex offender counseling classes.
According to a letter in his file from a sex addiction therapist, Gale was attending sessions at a Sexual Offending Behavior Recovery program while his physical health was deteriorating. The letter says Gale was walking with a cane and suffering from pulmonary hypertension and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is an ongoing lung condition caused by damage to the lungs.
The letter goes on to say, in January 2025, Gale was rushed by ambulance to a hospital in L.A. to treat the conditions … and his doctors refused to release him until he received a non-invasive ventilator, but apparently all the breathing machines were being used by victims of the L.A. wildfires at the time.
TMZ broke the story … Gale died Tuesday at a hospice facility in Los Angeles at age 61, a source told TMZ. His niece, Kayse Gale, celebrated his life in a Facebook post, calling Ed a “fun uncle” who has “taken his final bow and is now headlining in the afterlife.”
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Kayse also took a walk down memory lane, regaling a story about how Ed hitchhiked to California at 20 with just $41 in his pocket. She said he starred in more than 130 movies, TV shows, and commercials, most notably cult movies like “Howard the Duck,” “Chopper Chicks in Zombietown” — and, of course, the “Child’s Play” movie franchise.
