How did Joy Vogelsang die? Nicolas Cage's mom, 85, battled schizophrenia
Actor Nicolas Cage's mother, Joy Vogelsang, who was once a modern dancer, died on May 26 after spending two weeks in the hospital. A family source confirmed the news of her demise on June 18. She was 85 years old.
The source further informed that her funeral is yet to take place in her hometown of Los Angeles. Joy Vogelsang reportedly suffered from schizophrenia and severe depression when Oscar-winning actor Cage, 57, was a child. These illnesses ultimately became the cause of her death. The year 2021 has seen the demise of many great stars like Frank Bonner, Lisa Banes and Ned Beatty to name a few.
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An insider told The Sun, "Joy had been in the hospital for two weeks when she died and hadn't been well for a while. She had a hard life but she was very kind and just really beautiful, a great cook and very charismatic."
The source further added, "The funeral hasn't happened yet because there is a backlog due to Covid. We're hoping that Nic will be able to make it for the funeral now that it has been postponed because he is out of the country at the moment shooting a movie. Joy was incredibly proud of her sons and their achievements, she was a very affectionate woman."
Cage's brother, film director Christopher, posted on Facebook that was with their mother hours before she passed away on May 26. He wrote, "My mama died at 10:33pm 5/26. I was with her all day but left for a couple hours and missed her passing by a couple hours so wasn't able to hold her hand to give her my love and affection before her journey to peace land. She had a very hard life with mental health issues. In all of that painful emotional chaos she still managed to teach me something super important. I learned from my mama what 'affection' really means," he added.
When Cage was just 12, Joy Vogelsang got divorced from his dad, late university professor August Coppola in 1976. Cage always credited his mother as the 'driving force' behind his creativity. In an interview with Playboy magazine in 1996 about growing up as Joy's son, Cage said, "She was plagued with mental illness for most of my childhood. She was institutionalized for years and went through shock treatments."
He added, "She would go into these states that lasted for years. She went through these episodes of poetry – I don’t know what else to call it. She would say the most amazing things, beautiful but scary. I’m sure they had an impact on me. If I look at home movies of when I was two years old, I see that she was a very caring mother – the way she touched me, " he added.
Remembering an incident from his childhood, he further said, "I remember one birthday party when I got scared by all the candles. I’d try to run away and she would turn me back. It was very beautiful. But the hardest part was going to visit her in the institutions. I was quite young. There was a long hallway we had to walk down to see Mom, past people grabbing at us. At the end of it, she was always there, sitting, waiting."
When asked if his mother's illness had caused the nightmares he suffered as a kid, Cage added, "Maybe, yet I always felt protected. She never wanted to hurt anybody. The hardest part was seeing someone I love suffer." There has been no official comment from the actor's representative yet.