Christian Cousins, the former child actor best known for sharing the role of Dominic Palmieri in the 1990 comedy Kindergarten Cop opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, has died at the age of 43.
Cousins died on October 20, 2026, at his home in East Irvine, California. Authorities responded to a welfare check requested by family members who had been unable to reach him; officers found him deceased shortly after noon with no signs of suspicious circumstances. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department Coroner took custody of the body. An official cause of death has not been publicly released, though family members said he had been seriously ill with liver disease.
The news became public on November 13 after his half-brother, Jonas Roeser, posted a tribute on Instagram the previous month. Roeser wrote that it was “hard to share that my brother, Christian Cousins, has passed away,” describing him as “a character, full of passion and energy, with big stories and even bigger dreams.” He noted that Cousins “had been very sick with liver disease” and expressed comfort in the belief that he was “now in heaven with his mother, free from the pain he was carrying.” Roeser closed with the words, “Rest easy, Christian. I hope your soul is at rest and that you’ve found peace. You are my brother and you will be missed.”
Roeser, who is related to the brothers through their biological father and grew up in Washington state, said he did not meet Christian and his twin until college, having grown up watching them on television.
Born March 17, 1983, in Orange County and raised in Laguna Niguel, Cousins and his identical twin brother, Joseph “Joey” Cousins, frequently shared roles as children. Their most prominent film credit came in Ivan Reitman’s Kindergarten Cop, in which they alternated as Dominic, the young son of a woman (Penelope Ann Miller) who had gone into hiding with him. Schwarzenegger’s undercover detective character becomes a protective figure in the boy’s life.
The twins also portrayed Bobby Ewing on the CBS soap Knots Landing across dozens of episodes from the late 1980s into the early 1990s. Additional credits included an early appearance on Highway to Heaven, Critters 3 (1991), Twin Sitters, and guest work on series such as Eerie, Indiana, Empty Nest, Intruders, and Father Dowling Mysteries. They largely stepped away from acting in the mid-1990s.
In more recent years, Cousins had spoken publicly about health struggles. A Facebook post from early 2025 included a self-deprecating remark about being “barely healthy.” Family and friends remembered him for his personality and energy beyond his childhood screen work.
Cousins is survived by his twin brother and other family members. No further details about services have been widely reported.
