Christian Cousins, the child star who shared screen time with his identical twin brother, Joseph, in film and television roles in the late ’80s and early ’90s, has died at the age of 43 after a battle with liver disease. “It’s hard to share that my brother, Christian Cousins, has passed away,” Cousins’ half-brother, Jonas Roeser, posted on Instagram (per The Hollywood Reporter). “Christian had been very sick with liver disease. It brings me comfort to believe he is now in heaven with his mother, free from the pain he was carrying. Rest easy, Christian. I hope your soul is at rest and that you’ve found peace. You are my brother and you will be missed.”
Christian Michail Cousins and his brother were born on March 17, 1983, in Orange County, California. At age three, he and his twin made their television debut in 1987 during the ninth season of CBS’s primetime soap opera KnotsLanding. They shared the role of young Bobby Gibson Ewing, the son of Gary and Valene Ewing (Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark), named after Patrick Duffy’s character from Knots‘ flagship show, Dallas. During their time on KnotsLanding (they appeared together across 57 episodes until 1992), the Cousins brothers played Dominic Palmieri/Cullen Crisp Jr. alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Detective John Kimble in Ivan Reitman’s 1990 family comedy KindergartenCop. In the film, Dominic and his mother (Penelope Ann Miller) are in hiding from his criminal father (Richard Tyson). During the film’s climax, he sends his class’s pet ferret scurrying over his dad during a hostage standoff, giving Schwarzenegger the opportunity to deliver the killing blow.
Christian and Joseph shared roles throughout the early ’90s, appearing on the TV series Eerie,Indiana, Intruders, and FatherDowlingMysteries, as well as in the 1991 creature-feature sequel Critters3 (alongside a then-unknown Leonardo DiCaprio), before eventually splitting up to pursue their own opportunities. Christian went on to appear on shows like EmptyNest, Wings, and HBO’s DreamOn, while Joseph stayed on KnotsLanding as Bobby Ewing until the show’s conclusion in 1993. In 2020, Christian participated in a virtual class reunion with his fellow Kindergarten Cop castmates Miko Hughes, Krystle and Tiffany Mataras, Brian Wagner, and Adam Wylie. As Christian recounted a memory of signing an autograph for a fan at a very young age (he remembered struggling with spelling the word “beautiful,” he was so young), Schwarzenegger suddenly appeared on the call to surprise the cast. “I haven’t seen you guys in all these years!” Christian’s co-star said as he and his former classmates looked on, beaming.
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