Coronary artery disease was the underlying cause of Tim Curry's death, according to Los Angeles County Department of Public Health records released this week. A history of stroke and kidney cancer was listed as other significant conditions that contributed to his death but did not cause it, as first reported by People.
That distinction is the whole story for readers, and it is the part most likely to get lost. On a death certificate, the underlying cause is the condition that set the chain of events in motion. Contributing conditions appear in a separate section for illnesses that made the outcome more likely without being the mechanism. Curry's stroke and his kidney cancer sit in that second category.
