‘The Patriot’ actress Bartusiak found dead at home aged 21

Actress Skye McCole Bartusiak, who played Mel Gibson’s young daughter in the 2000 film The Patriot, has been found dead at her Texas home.

Her mother, Helen Bartusiak, said the 21-year-old actress had been living in a garage apartment at her parents’ home in Houston. Her boyfriend found her 
unresponsive on her bed on Saturday.

Ms Bartusiak, who tried in vain to resuscitate her, said her daughter had been healthy and did not drink or take drugs.

The family did not yet know the cause of death, she said.

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Bartusiak made her acting debut in the television mini-series Storm Of The Century in 1999 and also had a role on 24 from 2002 to 2003.

She made her film debut in The Cider House Rules in 1999 and starred with Michael Douglas in Don’t Say A Word in 2001. Her most recent movie was Sick Boy in 2012.

But Bartusiak was best known for her role in Gibson’s revolutionary war epic The Patriot, in which she played the daughter of militia leader Benjamin Martin, who struggles to speak with her father.

The Patriot cast also included Heath Ledger, who died after an accidental overdose of painkillers and sedatives in 2008.

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Meanwhile, court documents show that Philip Seymour Hoffman rejected his accountant’s suggestion he set aside money for his three children because he did not want them to be “trust fund” kids.

The New York Post says the children’s court-appointed lawyer recently interviewed the actor’s accountant, David Friedman.

In a July 18 filing in Manhattan Surrogate Court, Mr Friedman recalled conversations with Hoffman where the topic of a trust for his children was raised. He said Hoffman wanted his estimated $35m (£20m) fortune to go his longtime partner and the children’s mother, Mimi O’Donnell.

Hoffman died from a toxic mix of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, in his New York City home on February 2.

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