X

Disney Channel star Cameron Boyce dies at 20: 'Our hearts are broken'

Adam Sandler and others remember the young actor, who starred in Descendants and Grown-Ups.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
See full bio
Gael Cooper
2 min read

Cameron Boyce, who starred in the Disney Channel franchise Descendants, died Saturday at the age of 20. Disney CEO Robert Iger confirmed Boyce's death on Twitter.

"The Walt Disney Company mourns the loss of Cameron Boyce who was a friend to so many of us, and filled with so much talent, heart and life, and far too young to die," Iger wrote in a tweet.

"It is with a profoundly heavy heart that we report that this morning we lost Cameron," a spokesperson for the Boyce family told CBS News. "He passed away in his sleep due to a seizure which was a result of an ongoing medical condition for which he was being treated. 

A Disney Channel statement said Boyce will be "dearly missed."

"From a young age, Cameron Boyce dreamed of sharing his extraordinary artistic talents with the world," a Disney Channel spokesperson said. "As a young man, he was fueled by a strong desire to make a difference in peoples' lives through his humanitarian work. He was an incredibly talented performer, a remarkably caring and thoughtful person and, above all else, he was a loving and dedicated son, brother, grandson and friend."

Boyce played Carlos, the son of 101 Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil, on Disney's Descendants, which began as a 2015 TV movie and was followed by a short-form series and a movie sequel. He also starred on the Disney Channel's show Jessie and in feature films, including Grown-Ups and Grown-Ups 2. Grown-Ups star Adam Sandler remembered his young co-star in a touching online tribute.

"Too young. Too sweet. Too funny," Sandler wrote in part. "Thank you, Cameron, for all you gave to us. So much more was on the way. All our hearts are broken."

Descendants 3, Boyce's last film role before his death, will premiere on Disney Channel in August.