‘Baron of Botox’ dead after unflattering portrayal
A celebrity dermatologist who worked for stars including Madonna has been found dead, after being left “devastated” by his unflattering portrayal in a new comedy series created by Tina Fey. Dr Fredric Brandt, 65, the “Baron of Botox” was discovered at his Miami home by his housekeeper on Sunday. His publicist said Brandt, who experimented over the decades with self-administered injections of Botox and an array of fillers, suffered from depression and had died after a “short illness”.
Brandt was believed to have been an unwilling inspiration for the eccentric plastic surgeon character on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Martin Short plays the bizarre Botox-loving Dr Sidney Grant, pronounced “Franff”, with improbably smooth skin and platinum-blond hair. The character has a high-pitched laugh and is unable to speak certain words because of his plastic surgery.
Lesley Abravanel, a Miami Herald blogger, tweeted that Brandt was “devastated” by Short’s portrayal of him, which appeared in one episode.
She added: “Dr Brandt’s publicist says he was suffering from an ‘illness’. Sources close say that illness was depression.” Abravanel tweeted that the cause of death was a suspected suicide. Brandt’s publicist Jacquie Trachtenberg said: “The show definitely deeply hurt him . . . But the show was not the reason for his depression, and it was not the reason he would take his own life.”
Trachtenberg would not confirm the cause of death.
A New York Times profile last year described Brandt as “unnervingly ageless-looking”. He presented a “mask of serene immobility, a face with a creaseless brow, a square firm jawline, lips feminine in their puffy fullness”. — Independent