Joey Kovar, the muscular cast member of The Real World: Hollywood and Celebrity Rehab, was found dead in his home in Chicago this morning. He was 29.
Kovar was discovered by a friend, who noticed blood coming out of his ears and nose and called 911. He was pronounced dead by emergency-medical staff on the scene.
Last year, Kovar appeared in a full frontal spread in Playgirl, for which he was paid $20,000.
His battle with cocaine addiction was made public when he left the Real World midway through the season to seek treatment, and he later appeared on Celebrity Rehab to address his substance abuse.
Photos: Playgirl
samwise
I hope that it’s clear by now that drugs are fucked up. When you take that first hit of coke, or smoke that first joint or cigarette, you really have no idea if it will phase you you at all, send you rocketing to a world of hurt and despair, or something in between those extremes.
Brian Dutille
I watched Joey when he was on the “Real World Hollywood.” He was clearly lost and in need of help. I’m sure steroids along with coke, etc. did not help either like in the case with the recent death of porn star Erik Rhodes. Joey seemed like a truly good human being but caught up in the whole superficiality of “image” and “looking super muscular” that is pervasive especially in Los Angeles and Hollywood. He clearly looks f*d up in this picture above *sigh* He even went on Dr. Drew to get help; what is this, the 3rd or 4th person now who has died after being on “Celeb Rehab?” I hit him up years ago when he was on My Space and he even sent me a few messages back. Joey was really sweet. He should have stayed in Chicago and not moved to Los Angeles. I really believe more and more, especially with the young and restless people of today who have emotional issues and addictions that LA is “sin city” not Vegas. RIP Joey!!!
Edgar
Bummer that this dude died, but … how is this gay news? Was the guy gay? And if he wasn’t, is the fact that he showed his boner in a magazine enough to qualify his death as “gay news”?
samwise
@Brian Dutille: Who knows what his life would’ve been like if he had just stayed in Chicago? He could’ve cured cancer or somethin’.
cheekiey
sad
FunMe
@Brian Dutille: He was in Chicago when he died.
Larkin
@samwise: hahahahahaha… that’s funny.
mudgeboy
@samwise thinks coke and marijuana are in the same category. The problem is that
people who don’t know what they’re talking about feel the need to express their
uninformed opinion. Let me go on record as saying that marijuana is immensely
less harmful than alcohol, and obviously less harmful than cocaine.
samwise
@Edgar: the guy was hot, and I’m sure he had at least a few gay stalkers… cough… fans… I have question for you… when Madonna dies, will that be gay news? Duh!!!!
samwise
@mudgeboy: You’re right, mudgeboy. Cuz no one in the History of Universe ever paid a price for being a pothead.
ChrisC
@samwise: More people “paid a price” for being alcoholics than “potheads”, you cannot overdose on pot.
Joe
@samwise: There’s also a price to be paid for alcohol use, overeating and playing video games too much. Few other activities exact the same revenge as cocaine use, though. Or are you suggesting that pot and coke are the same?
samwise
@ChrisC: Keep telling yourself that between bong hits, dude.
hf2hvit
@samwise: @samwise: With what? His dick?
samwise
@Joe: I’m not saying that smoking pot is as bad as doing coke. I am saying that both of these things (as well as overeating and sitting around playing video games all day) has consequences.
drewina
good riddance
what a nasty lowlife
all of these new real world losers need to go
Chris
@drewina: Stay classy, drewina! I wonder what we will say when you pass. Perhaps all we will be able to say is that you spew bile at people you don’t know because your life is so empty that all that is left is to hate people on a television screen.
I hope people are kinder to you, than you are to others.
realgay
Doctor Drew has a terrible record helping people. Almost as bad as Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares where literally every restaurant Ramsay has helped has failed.
Chris
@samwise:I believe that when the toxicology result are made public, you will find that the overdose was of prescription medications. as far as anyone is aware, he was illegal drug free for the past 10 months to a year, but was on multiple anti anxiety medications, and he had been taking larger and larger doses, to combat some extreme panic attacks, but the side effects were so severe that he had been prescribed Adderall to combat them. I exchanged emails with him around his birthday (last month) and he seemed positive, and was adamant that he had stayed away from anything illegal, but was convinced, like many, that prescriptions we OK.
Now it is entirely possible that the autopsy will show something illegal and that he had been lying to everyone, but that’s not the impression I got, or of many people who were around him regularly. I spoke with a friend who worked with him last week, and would swear he was only using the prescriptions, but was using them heavily.
samwise
@Chris: Yes, I agree that the autopsy findings will shed some necessary light on his death. I should also say that ILLEGAL drugs are what’s screwing society, not what is legal.
Edgar
@samwise: I’ve never really gotten Madonna’s appeal, so there’s at least one gay household where her death won’t really be news. That said, Madonna has (inexplicably) played a large role in many gay men’s lives for many years. This gentleman who’s just died hasn’t, so your point does not stand. Care to try again?
samwise
@Edgar: 1. If Judy Garland’s death can start a social revolution, only an idiot wouldn’t believe that Madonna’s death wouldn’t cause a mass gathering in the heart of West Hollywood, Chelsea, Dupont Circle, or any of the gay ghettos.
Again, the guy was quite attractive, which, dare I say, appeals to many a gay man. Your serve, Edgar.
Edgar
@samwise: Except that I never denied Madonna’s appeal to gays; in fact, I quite explicitly acknowledged it. Are you able to read at all?
mike ramon
You can preach to these addicts about the dismall future and havoc drugs will do to the human body, until you run out of words in the English language and they will promise to stay off of them and go to rehab, two weeks of rehab and back to the drugs, and until they’re dead they won’t stop using them. You see they want that: escape, that feel good, feel real good feeling, like someone could cut you off in traffic and you wouldn’t give a crap, you’d just smile. And when you’re off the drugs your whole body is one jumble of exposed nerves and everyone and everything ticks you off. And no, I am not nor have I ever been a drug addict.
JohnnyBoy
@realgay: lol @ Dr. Drew. I don’t like Dr. Drew. He seems very text book to me. Maybe that’s why he fails. People who have been through hell and back are usually the best people to help others. I don’t know that Dr. Drew has been through much of anything personally in his life. He just seems out of touch, but I could be wrong. H
David
@ChrisC: no, potheads just smoke in secret before work and misjudge distance while driving a commercial truck and someone’s grandmother is killed
LandStander
@David: Have you ever actually taken a look at the number of automobile accidents that are attributed to marijuana?? Then look at the number of automobile accidents that are attributed to alcohol? Yes, smoking/drinking and then driving is not good. That does not mean that all “potheads just smoke in secret and then drive and kill someone” anymore then everyone who drinks alcohol is going to kill someone in a wreck.
samwise
@Edgar: Of course I can read. I’d read your justification for saying the guy’s death is not news, if it existed.
GATO
@drewina: What a miserable life you you have, you are a real piece of shit
Ruhlmann
@samwise: “That first joint”? hahaha hahahaa hahaah haha ha
Ruhlmann
I have been smoking pot since most of you were born, and I was fifteen. I don’t drive while high because it relaxes me too much and you need some edge for the unpredictability of traffic so I have never killed anyones granny. I won scholorships and bursaries for college. I don’t and have never done any other drug. I drink socially and responsibly and I own and run my own business. Pot relaxes me and I am better able to focus and concentrate on my creative endeavours as an Ebonist, Furniture Polisher and Sculptor. Pot also enhances my ardour and sensual response when love making. I am more inclined to apologize both when I feel I haven’t done anything to apologize for and when I have, to keep the peace between myself and family and friends who are the most important parts of a life I am fortunate and grateful for. There is nothing wrong with smoking pot.
shannon
WHO THE HELL CARES?????? ANOTHER CRACK HEAD DEAD….IF THIS WERE ANY OTHER GROUP THIS WOULD NOT BE POSTED HERE…….WHO CARES???
Captain proton
Not one word in your report on his family.
Joey Kovar is survived by a 3-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-reality-star-joey-kovar-native-of-evergreen-park-dies-20120817,0,7146918.story
Martin
@shannon: So Shannon i guess his kids care…
Im getting really sick of reading your useless callous comments in every article like this. Go away. Nobofy wants you here. Go fantasize about misogyni or smth
Max
And another bites the dust. Sad to see a young man’s life wasted just like that at 29. Hopefully news like this would raise awareness on how bad drugs is and everyone should stay away from it.
skippy
leave it to the petty catty queens on here to turn someones DEATH into a bitch fest about pointless details fueled by narrow opinions..bravo bitches!!
Camm
@Chris: said…
“@samwise:I believe that when the toxicology result are made public, you will find that the overdose was of prescription medications. as far as anyone is aware, he was illegal drug free for the past 10 months to a year,
+____________
You’re joking right? Abuse of LEGAL drugs is what has most of the people in rehab. Doctor Shopping, getting fake prescriptions etc… There isn’t a difference between somebody addicted to an illegal drug or a legal one as far as their health is concerned but for the fact that they go to a Pharmacy for one or down to a dealer for the other.
Cam
The people debating whether it was legal or illegal drugs seem to be trying to draw a distinction that isn’t there.
With doctor shopping and all the other scams. Legal drugs are just as much of a problem for addicts, they just get them from Pharmacies instead of dealers.
Cam
@Cam:
Um, I’m not a different person. Not sure why it said that.
Mason
Geez, he just died and all you can do is hate…sad…
AVM
“Celeb Rehab? Whats the body count up to now ? 5 or 6
Blah, Blah..huh
@mudgeboy: Everyone knows how overuse of weed becomes boring. You just switch to something else on mons-weds, then. Like dressing as hobbits and crosscountry running, or whatever. Daily driver weed heads bore themselves eventually too. It’s nice to mix it up in life. That’s what the “life threatening warning symptoms” tell you how you’re being stoned to much. Your head tells you to wait a while before that next joint, or you’ll get bored. Scary. That’s like….well, I don’t know what kind of withdrawl, but maybe what you get if you cold turkey your tic-tac habit? Just not because of the minty fresh goodness though.
Blah, Blah..huh
BTW, RIP this guy. I remember seeing a few minutes of that show and the theme was how bad he didn’t want to be a douchy coke-fiend anymore. smh he died.
What the f**k
@samwise: Everything has a consequence you supercilious twit.
Spike
Google image search this guys Playgirl pics, how incredibly desperate Playgirl has become, the guy is a poster boy for the effects of steroids, something about bitch tits and the dick/balls of a 12 year old on a beefy muscle guy, so not hot. It’s apparent why viagra was involved.
Rockery
Everyone here is missing the big point, it does not matter what drug it was he was going to take anything he could get his hands on and mix them and chase it with alcohol because he was trying to numb the pain from being abused as a child
For all of you that have not gone through it, you will never understand that darkness that does not leave you. Kindly, shut the f*ck up.
RIP Joey
Larry
@samwise: perhaps you shouldn’t speak when you have zero idea what you are saying…”that first joint” really???? look I was really into hitting speed and coke way back in the late 70’s and early 80’s and I quit before most of you were born…speed and coke are killers and I still struggle with alcohol but get real and do not say pot is in the same category
Timmeeeyyy!!!
For once, could you folks surprise me and not use a dead guy’s coffin as your personal soap box?
Rest in peace, Joey.
Mike
Rest in peace. I hope he finds the peace he didn’t find in life.
I had no idea who he was when he was alive, since I don’t look at the mens in Playgirl or haven’t for awhile, and I don’t watch MTV’s the real world.
MikeE
I don’t particularly care either way what he died of. It’s a shame he died. like for anyone.
But Queerty is supposed to be “free of an agenda, except that gay one”… which I presume means that the “news” they have should somehow, in some vague manner, relate to the LGBT community?
So, I have absolutely NO idea who this Joey Kovar is.
He isn’t gay, apparently.
He hasn’t played a gay role in any movie or TV show.
He was never an activist for LGBT rights, nor played any part in that fight.
And according to the details available about his death, he was far from being any sort of role model.
So why exactly is Queerty announcing his death as though it were something of importance to the LGBT community?
If Queerty announces this young man’s death, will they start announcing every single young person’s death, relevant or not?
“Queerty. Free of an agenda… except that dead one”.
Yes he was cute.
Yes it’s sad that he died.
But it’s not like there’s a paucity of news items related to the LGBT community.
How about keeping to our “agenda”?
rob p
well this is proof that some people are better off dead
cosmos35
Poor fella, sounds like he may have had a brain hemorrhage, quite common among athletic types, see it quite a lot being a paramedic
NCMan
@Mike: The plural of man is “men”, not “mens”.
NCMan
@MikeE: Joey was a pretty man who took his clothes off and showed us his erect penis in Playgirl magazine. That is apparently what made him part of the “gay agenda”.
samwise
@What the f**k: You’re too stupid to understand what I’m saying. Typical.
samwise
@Larry: Pretty sad Larry that you have no idea what I’m talking about.
samwise
@Ruhlmann: You’re lucky, whereas some people are not so lucky. Do you dispute that?
What the f**k
Typical of what? The reaction you invariably get from people the moment you open your mouth? Crawl back under your rock …you condescending twat.
pap
who cares about idiots like this.
Make It Great
This debate is senseless. I guess this guy is covered here because he is “hot.” Whatever…
avgjo1984
How Very Sad… He was Beautiful…
EvonCook
@mudgeboy: Glad to see someone calling out idiots who fanatically and ignorantly lump everything together. All drugs are not all alike, but they are all like alcohol in that mindless prohibition, instead of education and counseling, only breeds criminal activity. Also, if one can really control oneself, moderation is always the way to go, even if Oscar said “Nothings succeeds like excess.”
D P
Hey guys, I’ve read some of the comments here, and decided to just jump in to enter my own comment:
I didn’t know this guy at all until tonight when I read of his passing, because I don’t have television in my house. Naturally, just going on his pictures and the fact that he died so young caught my attention, so I started with a superficial impression of Kovar. So, I Googled around and read some articles about him, and ended up at his Twitter account. I was reading the tweets he wrote, but what caught my attention was that this guy seemed really open-minded about diversity. I didn’t get the impression that he was gay, but I did get the impression that he had no problem with being a muscled sex object admired by others, for women *OR* men, and that he could get along with either.
I think that that alone would make me root for the guy. Finding people who are tolerant of others, let alone comfortable enough to get along with LGBT people are valuable to have. I think we lost someone friendly to us when Kovar died.
I realize I may be wrong since I didn’t know anything about this guy until tonight. If you have a differing opinion about Kovar, tell me about it, but show me the resource you have to support your position.