Cocaine blamed for agent's heart attack

Comedy agent Addison Cresswell died of a heart attack brought on by snorting cocaine at a Christmas party, an inquest into his death has heard.

Cresswell, whose clients included Jonathan Ross, Jack Dee, Alan Carr and Michael McIntyre, died in December at the age of 53.

It came three days after attending a party where he took Class A drugs, St Pancras Coroner’s Court was told yesterday, after which he complained of ‘burning’ chest pains.

In a statement to the inquest, his wife Shelley said her husband would use cocaine on the ‘odd occasion’ to deal with the stresses of his life – and that he had eased back since he had been taken to hospital in 2007 after suffering delusions and paranoia.

Around 3am on December 23, she called 999 after awaking to find him unresponsive and gasping for breath.

A post-mortem gave the cause of death as a heart attack and tightening of the coronary arteries, brought on by cocaine usage.

The Islington Tribune reports coroner Jacqueline Devonish saying: ‘It is clear that he did engage occasionally in the use of cocaine I’m also satisfied that Addison Cresswell was not a drug abuser in as far as being dependent on drugs and that he only took the drugs occasionally.’

Cresswell ran both the Off The Kerb agency and the TV production company Open Mike, responsible for shows featuring many of his stars, such as Live At The Apollo, Stand up For The Week and Chatty Man.

Published: 2 May 2014