Former Mouseketeer Marque “Tate” Lynche, who died in December at age 34, drank himself to death, a spokeswoman for the New York City chief medical examiner’s office told TheWrap on Thursday.
Lynche’s cause of death was determined to be acute and chronic alcoholism, while his manner of death was deemed natural.
The former “All-New Mickey Mouse Club” cast member was found by his roommate at their New York City apartment on the afternoon of Dec. 6, and he was pronounced dead at 4 p.m. ET, the NYPD told TheWrap at the time.
Lynche was a Mouseketeer from 1993 to 1995. He went on to compete on Fox’s “American Idol” and was one of the 32 finalists on Season 3, which Fantasia Barrino eventually won.
Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, as Marque Syl Lynche, he also appeared off Broadway in “The Lion King” as Simba in 2000 and joined the cast of “Fame on 42nd Street” in 2004.
Lynche later took a break from acting to mourn the loss of his mother and to focus on musical endeavors.