Suicide of dermatologist 'mocked by sitcom'

Did Fredric Brandt inspire peculiar character?

A celebrity dermatologist has taken his own life, after being reportedly left 'devastated' by a sitcom character said to be based him.

Fredric Brandt, 65, was found dead in his Miami home on Sunday morning after apparently hanging himself.

He was said to have been rocked by reports he was the inspiration for the deranged plastic surgeon Dr Franff, played by Martin Short in Tina Fey's new Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Brandt's publicist Jacquie Trachtenberg told the New York Post: 'The show definitely deeply hurt him, he was being made fun of because of the way he looks. It is mean, and it was bullying.'

But she added: 'The show was not the reason for his depression, and it was not the reason he would take his own life.'

And the Samaritans say there is rarely one single perceived "trigger" for a suicide.

Brandt was dubbed the Baron of Botox and had celebrity clients including Madonna, who once said she 'owed a lot' to him for the state of her skin, although she has never confirmed that she had Botox.

Before his death Miami Herald journalist Lesley Abravanel had tweeted that Brandt 'was "devastated" over comparisons to the protagonist on Tina Fey's new Netflix show'.

A statement from Brandt's agency said: 'In all ways, Dr. Brandt was a tremendous presence in the beauty industry, a man who was incomparably skilled as a doctor but equally caring and generous as a human being. He loved singing show tunes and creating raps while he worked, keeping his patients happy and laughing while they were being injected with needles. It was impossible to walk out of his office without a smile on your face, feeling rejuvenated inside and out.'