Questions linger in death of actor

Ed Koch and Jace Radke

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

Metro Police were continuing their investigation today into why a successful actor who played a music critic on Brooke Shields' NBC sitcom "Suddenly Susan" was found dead in a $64-a-night room at a Las Vegas motel.

David Strickland, 29, was found about 11 a.m. Monday hanging from a bed sheet that was tied around a ceiling beam in Room 20 of the Oasis Motel, 1731 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

The Clark County coroner said today that the cause of death has not yet been determined. An autopsy was scheduled for today.

Police so far were treating the death as a suicide, Metro Police homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said. No foul play was evident, but the course of the police investigation was awaiting the coroner's findings, he said.

A question on the minds of many was why a young man who seemingly had such a bright future would apparently take his own life.

"We handle 300 suicides a year, and you can ask the same question about nearly all of them," Coroner Ron Flud said today.

"Sometimes, 'why' is the one question we can never answer," Petersen said.

Strickland arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday, Flud said. What he did between then and the time he checked into the Oasis early Monday was not known. It also was not known whether he visited fellow cast member Shields, a part-time Las Vegas resident, or whether she was even in town.

Strickland checked into the motel, which offers fantasy rooms and pornographic movies, alone and under his own name between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Monday, Oasis owner Peter Napoli said.

After checking in, Strickland was seen walking to a nearby convenience store and returning with a bag. Napoli said that he did not know what was in the bag, but beer reportedly was found in the motel room.

"A desk clerk went to check on him when there was no answer to his phone at check-out time," Napoli said. "She was petrified when she found him hanging there."

Strickland was found fully clothed hanging from the ceiling beam, Napoli said.

Strickland is not the first well-known figure to die at the Oasis. Last Nov. 22, three-time world poker champion Stu Ungar was found dead at the motel after a mixture of narcotics and pain-killers aggravated a heart condition.

On "Suddenly Susan," now in its fourth season, Strickland portrayed Todd Stites, a quirky and endearing music critic who worked for a San Francisco magazine called The Gate. The character has a short attention span caused by a fixation with MTV.

Strickland was pronounced dead on the day the 53rd installment of the show, entitled the "Halloween Episode," was repeated. In the episode, his character attended a Halloween costume party dressed as tennis star Andre Agassi in his younger days. Agassi, a longtime Las Vegan, is Shields' real-life husband.

Strickland also appears in the new Dreamworks film "Forces of Nature," starring Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck. In the film, which was released Friday, Strickland played the ex-boyfriend of Affleck's fiancee.

He was born in Glen Cove., N.Y., on Oct. 14, 1969, and was raised in New Jersey. His family moved to Pacific Palisades, a suburb of Los Angeles, when he was in high school. Strickland was a resident of Los Angeles at the time of his death.

After high school, Strickland joined a theater company, acted in plays and wrote comedy sketches, performing some of them at clubs.

Strickland also appeared in 64 student films, which led to guest roles in television shows including "Roseanne," "Dave's World," "Sister, Sister" and "Mad About You," before he landed the role on "Suddenly Susan."