[Deathwatch] Christopher Bowman, figure skater, 40

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Bowman found dead in L.A. motel
Figure skating champ, 40, dies of possible overdose
Posted: Friday January 11, 2008 12:57AM; Updated: Friday January 11,
2008 1:44AM

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/01/11/obit.bowman.ap/index.h
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Christopher Bowman, the former U.S. figure skating
champion dubbed "Bowman the Showman" for his flair on the ice, died
Thursday of a possible drug overdose, authorities said. He was 40.

Bowman was pronounced dead at 12:06 p.m., said Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale,
who wasn't immediately able to provide more details about the possible
drug overdose. Bowman's body was found at a motel in the North Hills
section of Los Angeles, and an autopsy was planned for this weekend,
Bale said.

"He just passed away in his sleep," Bowman's mother, Joyce, told the
Detroit Free Press, which first reported details of his death. "His
friend told me that he was fine. He just went to bed and didn't wake
up."

Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating's bigger
personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Immensely talented,
with a gift for performance that few others could match, he won the
U.S. men's figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in
1987 and 1991.

He also won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships, and a
bronze the next year. He skated in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics,
finishing seventh in 1988 and fourth in 1992.

"If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would
pick Christopher as one," Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion,
told the Chicago Tribune. "He had natural charisma, natural
athleticism, he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds and he
always seemed so relaxed about it."

But as talented as he was on the ice, Bowman could be just as big a
challenge off it. He bounced from coach to coach long before it became
fashionable -- he once won Skate America when he was in-between coaches
-- and freely admitted that practice was something that just didn't
interest him much.

"Each and every competition that I train for, prepare for, is always a
personal challenge for me because, as we all know, the training and
discipline between each event is very difficult for me," Bowman said in
1992.

He battled drug problems, and underwent treatment at least twice --
once before the 1988 Olympics and then again after the Albertville
Games in 1992.

He also had run-ins with the law.

In November 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors involving
having a gun while drunk in Rochester Hills, Mich.

In 1993, while skating with the Ice Capades, he was beaten at a hotel
in a seedy neighborhood in Pittsburgh, according to a police report.

Richard Callaghan, coach of Bowman's longtime rival, Todd Eldredge,
said he was saddened to learn of Bowman's death.

"When Todd told me, I said, 'What a shame,"' Callaghan told the Free
Press. "Christopher was such a nice person. Even though he was
troubled, he was very genuine and friendly.

"There was a great rivalry between Christopher and Todd because they
were so opposite. Christopher was always on; he was the star when it
came to doing any competitions. Most of us didn't know how he did it,
but he did."

Born in Hollywood, on March 30, 1967, Bowman had a part in the TV
series Little House on the Prairie for one season and appeared in
dozens of commercials. He got into coaching into his skating career was
finished, and the Free Press said he had lived in the Detroit area from
1995 until last February.

Recently, Bowman had returned to acting. He had a role as an assistant
coach in the upcoming Brian J. De Palma-directed movie Down and
Distance starring Gary Busey.

Bowman had a daughter with his former wife, Annette Bowman, according
to the Free Press.

Many thanks to TheLenGuy for posting this obituary