LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ted Demme: Cocaine
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Demme suffered a heart attack after playing in a celebrity hoops contest at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica. He was then rushed to Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and was pronounced dead after 20 minutes. His weight may have been an issue, Demme weighed in over 200 pounds, but he was very active and played basketball a few times a week. His autopsy came back inconclusive and a battery of toxicology tests were then ordered, which lead to the discovery that he had cocaine in his system.
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The recognition, which included a special tribute to Demme, came nearly four months after the 38-year-old collapsed and died while playing in a charity basketball game in Santa Monica. Coroner's officials found a small amount of cocaine in his body, and concluded that the drug could have been a factor in his death.
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On January 13, 2002, while playing a game of basketball, Demme collapsed and died of a heart attack which may have been related to cocaine later found in his system during an autopsy. After his death, his wife, Amanda Scheer Demme, opened “celebrity” bars in Hollywood, including "Teddy's" at the Roosevelt Hotel — not named after her late husband, but rather the former president.
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Demme had thickened heart arteries, and died when a blood clot formed in a heart vessel. The small amount of cocaine in his body could have been a factor in the fatal heart attack, said Los Angeles County Coroner's Lt. Erick Arbuthnot.
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Ms. Demme, 38, has indeed had worse phone calls. Four years ago her husband, the producer and director Ted Demme, died of a heart attack in the middle of a basketball game (cocaine was later found in his system), leaving her with a 6-week-old son and 4-year-old daughter to raise and support. That was about as rough as life gets, though lately it hasn't exactly been a picnic.
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