André Gower, star of The Monster Squad, has suffered a massive heart attack. After beginning his career as a child actor, Gower’s earliest roles came on the soap operas Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless in the early 1980s. Gower’s TV credits also include the sitcom Valerie, which went through many iterations, such as The Hogan Family and Valerie's Family. However, Gower is best known for his role in The Monster Squad as a teenager.
Released in 1987, The Monster Squad is a horror/comedy film written by Shane Black and directed by Fred Dekker. The film features pastiches of Universal’s five most famous monsters, Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, confronted by a group of savvy kids. Though it was a massive failure upon its release, grossing $3.8 million domestically on a $12 million budget, The Monster Squad went on to become a cult classic. In his 2018 documentary, Wolfman's Got Nards, Gower explored the power of cult film through the lens of The Monster Squad.
Over the past weekend, André Gower was hospitalized after suffering a massive heart attack. In a video posted to the actor’s Instagram, Gower explains that he was playing tennis when he began feeling ill. After a few minutes, a friend took Gower to urgent care, where doctors immediately recognized the situation and took him to the ER. There, he was taken to the catheterization laboratory to unblock his right coronary artery. In recovery in the ICU, Gower recounted the series of events in the video below:
A GoFundMe page has also been created by Gower’s family and friends to help cover the cost of his medical bills, which has currently raised $52,000 on the path to its $250,000 goal. The page provides more information about Gower’s healthy lifestyle and how he experienced none of the telltale signs of a heart attack, such as chest or arm pain, a testament to how a perfectly healthy individual can experience an unthinkable tragedy like a coronary blockage.
Since then, Gower has been posting updates on social media, which reveal that The Monster Squad actor has been emitted from the hospital and is now resting at home. Gower thanked fans and followers for all their “support, vibe, prayers, love, DMs, texts, calls, etc.” Hopefully, Gower makes a full recovery.
Source: André Gower/GoFundMe