ACTOR Eric Cullen died of a heart attack, it was revealed yesterday.
It was discovered that his heart arteries had been clogged by cholesterol and the stress of an operation for a blockage of the small bowel triggered the attack.
The actor, who played Wee Burney in BBC Scotland's television series Rab C Nesbitt, died in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, last Thursday. His death certificate gives both the heart condition - coronary artery atheroma - and the stress of the operation as the causes of death.
Friends revealed that Cullen, 31, had been born with a high level of cholesterol. Last night, a leading Scottish doctor added: ``Sadly, it is more likely that a person who dies from coronary artery atheroma in their early 30s has had an inherent problem with high cholesterol. Only a person in their 50s could have eaten themselves into such ill health.
``The stress of the operation and the effects of the small-bowel blockage would have brought on the heart attack.''
A funeral service will be conducted at the West Parish Church in Hamilton, where Cullen had been a Boys' Brigade member, on Thursday followed by cremation at Daldowie.
Many of Scotland's showbusiness personalities are expected to attend the funeral service, conducted by his lifelong friend, the church minister Stan Cook.
Cullen, of Mossdale Gardens, Hamilton, was dropped from Rab C Nesbitt and Scottish Television's Wemyss Bay children's programme after admitting child pornography charges at Hamilton Sheriff Court in June last year.
The day before he died, BBC Scotland had been set to invite him to return to a new Nesbitt series.
He had been jailed for nine months for taking pornographic pictures and videos. He spent two weeks in Barlinnie jail on suicide watch before being released on appeal when the sentence was reduced to three years' probation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article