Keith Nale, a contestant on two seasons of “Survivor,” has died at the age of 62 following a brief battle with cancer.
“He passed away this afternoon,” Nale’s son Wes told ET Online on Tuesday. “He’d been battling cancer for the past few months and we found out about it in January.”
“A life taken way too soon,” Nale’s brother Kevin added in a statement to the outlet. “It happened so quickly. Cancer ate him up. He passed this afternoon at his home in Shreveport, Louisiana.”
Keith and Wes, 32, competed on “Survivor: San Juan del Sur” in 2014 as father-son contestants. Keith later returned to the franchise for “Survivor: Cambodia” in 2015. He went on to the final four on “San Juan del Sur” and the final five on “Cambodia.”
Kelley Wentworth, who competed against Keith on both seasons, called Keith “a man with the purest heart, who brought humor into moments where it was needed most.”
“I’m grateful I had the opportunity to meet Keith & share memories together on the beaches of Nicaragua & Cambodia,” she wrote on Twitter. “My heart is with the entire Nale family. This is a devastating loss.”
Jeremy Collins, the winner of “Survivor: Cambodia” during Nale’s season, also shared his condolences to the Nale family on Twitter.
“My condolences to the Big D, Wes, Austin and entire Nale family,” he wrote. “You will be missed Keith but your legacy will live on. Rest in power my firefighter/survivor brother.”
