Steve Cash, 'Talking Kitty Cat' YouTube star, dies by suicide at age 40
YouTube star Steve Cash, known to millions of fans as the man behind the famous 'Talking Kitty Cat' videos, took his own life on Thursday, April 16, at the age of 40.
The news of his death came from his wife, Celia DeCosta Cash, on Facebook through a heartbreaking post. "This is so hard. I’m not even sure what to say, or for that matter, what to do. I just lost my best friend, my sidekick, my lover, my mentor, my absolute everything, this morning. I’m so sad to say, my husband, Steve Cash took his own life this morning 4/16/2020. It hurts me to share this. Please understand, give the family time to grieve, but know that Steve is no longer in pain," she penned in a caption to a black and white photo of the couple.
Soon tributes for Steve started pouring in on the comments section of the post. "Steve touched many people’s lives in many different ways... for me he was always there making me laugh with the videos and posts. Sometimes that was all I needed to know things would be ok. Thank you Steve for all that you have done and the much-needed laughter you brought to this world," one user wrote.
Another commented: "I am so incredibly sad to hear this and my heart breaks for you. I cannot imagine what pain you are going through right now. My family and I send our thoughts to you and your family in this sorrowful time."
A third recalled the fact that Steve's mother had taken her own life too. "Steve was such a giving person. And I know that had to be so hard for him struggling with depression because I do too. I remember talking to him about his mother telling him that I had a conversation with her the day before she took her own life and how she talked about how she was so proud of how he helped people with their own struggles. Because I told her how he saved me from sliding down that slippery slope we all do with depression that leads us to that road of that one decision" the user wrote.
According to TMZ, Steve died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The YouTube star never hid his struggles with mental health with his fans. To a fan who remarked in September last year, "You've been so active on social media lately that at first, I thought you were hacked," Steve replied, "Nah, just bipolar. I'm on a manic up right now. When I go back into depression I'll vacate everything."
He shot to fame with his sketch comedy series on YouTube in November 2007 where he talked to cats, pretending that they were humans. He voiced each of the brief but popular videos, which slowly garnered 2.43 million subscribers over the years.
His most popular video to date is 'Bad! Bad! Bad!' from four years ago, which got 17 million views. He posted his last video on December 30. Overall he totalled around 770 million views on all his videos combined.