‘Family Feud’ host Ray Combs’ extremely sad cause of death, confirmed

Ray Combs was a much-loved stand-up comedian, actor, and game show host best known for hosting CBS’ ever-popular Family Feud from 1988 until 1994.

Combs also hosted another gameshow, on The Family Channel, Family Challenge, from 1995 until 1996, appeared in the movies Overboard (1987) and Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), and on television in shows like The Golden Girls, Amen, and The Larry Sanders Show.

Tragically, on June 2, 1996, when he was just 40 years old, Combs passed away. But how did that happen?

How did Ray Combs die?

As People reported on a now-archived page, Ray Combs took his own life by fashioning a noose from bedsheets, in the closet of his room at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, and hanging himself.

Combs had been troubled in the months leading to his death. He had struggled to adjust to life after his stint as the host of Family Feud ended and, in July of 1994, a car accident left him with permanently painful spinal disk injuries.

He had run into financial difficulties when the two comedy clubs he owned in his native Ohio failed, and the bank foreclosed on his former Hamilton home in the Midwestern state. Moreover, his 18-year marriage to Debbie (with whom he had six children) was failing at the same time.

Combs had been admitted to Glendale Adventist Medical Center on June 1, after trashing his home in Glendale, California and repeatedly banging his head against the walls there. His estranged wife informed police he had attempted to take his own life in the previous week and spent time in hospital as a result. After only a day in the medical center, where he was immediately placed on a 72-hour psychiatric observation hold, he succeeded in his next suicide attempt.

Rest in peace, Ray Combs.

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