The Hollyoaks actor and reality TV star Paul Danan died at his Bristol home from a cocktail of drugs including cocaine and heroin, an inquest opening has been told.
The actor, 46, who played Sol Patrick from 1997 to 2001 on the Channel 4 soap, was later known for his reality TV appearances, including on Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Love Island.
Police officers were called to an address in Brislington, Bristol, on 15 January where Danan was pronounced dead by paramedics.
An inquest into Danan’s death opened and adjourned before Maria Voisin, the senior coroner for Avon, at Avon coroner’s court on Tuesday.
The coroner’s officer, Alexis Camp, told the hearing that Danan’s body was identified at the scene by his partner, Melissa Crooks.
Camp said: “The circumstances are that Mr Danan was found unresponsive at his home address. Emergency services attended and confirmed he had sadly died. A postmortem has taken place and samples have been removed for further analysis.”
“I understand there are no family concerns,” he added. “No note was left.”
The court heard that the provisional cause of Danan’s death was combined toxicity of heroin, heroin-substitute methadone, painkiller codeine, anxiety-treatment pregabalin, cocaine, insomnia-treatment zopiclone, and it was contributed to by antidepressant benzodiazepine.
Danan had battled drug addiction, claiming to have spent about £1m on rehab over the years, with a Covid-related relapse leaving him living on the streets at one point, until he checked into a Cotswolds rehab facility.
Danan had been due to appear for a plea hearing at Warrington magistrates court on Thursday, after being charged with being in possession of cocaine and cannabis, according to court documents.
He was also accused of driving while under the influence of drugs on 2 October last year, in Warrington, Cheshire.
Statements will be taken from Danan’s GP, family, police and the ambulance service and inquiries are continuing with Avon and Wiltshire mental health partnership NHS trust, the hearing heard
The coroner set a provisional date of 28 May for the full inquest hearing.
