"Meet the Parents" Actress Dies

Thu Mar 10, 5:45 PM ET Entertainment - E! Online Gossip/Celeb


By Sarah Hall

Nicole DeHuff, an actress who played Teri Polo's sister in Meet the Parents, has died of causes related to pneumonia. She was 30.


The actress died Feb. 16 in Hollywood, four days after she reportedly checked into a Los Angeles hospital, was misdiagnosed and sent home with orders to take Tylenol.


When her condition worsened, she returned to the hospital and was prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis and again sent home. Two days later, paramedics were called to her home after she collapsed, gasping for breath. By the time she reached the hospital, she was unconscious and passed away soon after.


Meet the Parents marked DeHuff's feature-film debut. She played Deborah Byrnes, the sister whose wedding prompts Gaylord "Greg" Focker's (Ben Stiller) visit to girlfriend Pam Byrne's (Polo) childhood home to attend the ceremony and, as suggested by the title, meet the parents. Hilarity ensues.


In one of the movie's most memorable scenes, a Speedo-clad Stiller spikes a volleyball into DeHuff's face, breaking the bride-to-be's nose and cementing his own unpopularity.


DeHuff also appeared in 2004's Suspect Zero with Ben Kingsley and in an independent film called Killing Cinderella.


She also starred in the as yet unreleased independent film Unbeatable Harold, directed by her husband, Ari Palitz, and costarring Dylan McDermott and Gordon Michaels.


On the small screen, DeHuff had roles in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Court, The Practice, Dragnet, Without a Trace and Monk. She also appeared in the TV movie See Arnold Run.


A native of Oklahoma, DeHuff graduated from the Carnegie Mellon University acting program.


She is survived by Palitz, her husband of four years, as well as her sister, her mother and her father.




I think her family should sue the doctors who sent her home twice!

There's no excuse.

Janfriend said:

..and that's based on a short report on E! Online.

There must be more to this than the story gives away. 30 year olds don't just die of pneumonia!

Nevertheless a sad tale.

PREDOMINANT said:

Can't anyone die of pneumonia?

I can relate to this story as I had to literally COMMAND that my doctor a couple years ago send me to se a Lung Specialist after they could not figure out why I was coughing for about two months! All he did was attempt to feed me medication on top of medication! No way was I gonna take all the pills he tried to prescribe. I was so pissed.

Turned out I was developing Asthma. There were blood tests and everything because of this incompetent ass!!!

Doctors just don't give a fuck anymore. I don't know if its a time thing or if they're just going through the motions to stay paid but I've wanted to kick my doctors' ass several times for being nonchalant w/ shit that was bugging me

This story is FUCKED UP, happens more than we know I'm sure...

thats scary. i had pneumonia 3 times when i was little. every time my mother knew something was wrong when everyone else thought i just had a cold. my dad would get mad cause she would make him take us(he was sorta an ass) to the hospital-and wouldn't leave till they took a deeper look at me. i remember once i was in there for a week, i didn't know i got sick like that when i was little till my mother told me. they should be sued for malpractice.

Can't anyone die of pneumonia?[/quote]
...yes...

i think the same thing happend to Jim henson

Very tragic. Also, if she died like a month ago, why is it just being reported now? Anyway, the doctors should be ashamed and sued...we should put this in the P&R forum so we can get people who defend fuck up doctors to try and justify this.

animalistic said:

Are you implying that E! wrote that line? I think Jan added it.

PREDOMINANT said:

I know what you mean, but this is a cultural thing. I believe the average doctor in the US are considerably more negligent than the average European doctor. In the US you have people dying from pneumonia and diabetes, whereas here (at least in Sweden) people very rarely die from either.

VinnyM27 said:

I think they were implying that E! wasn't a credible enough source for me to base my opinion that the doctors should be sued

roodboi said:

That's what I thought. If not caught early and treated properly, anyone,at any age, can die from pneumonia

when i was in high school i had a case of severe double pneumonia that the doctors didn't catch for almost a month. they thought i just had a sinus infection that wasn't going away. finally the nurse practioner suggested a chest x-ray and that's when they saw that one of my lungs was completely filled and 2/3 of my other lung was filled.

my mother was so scared. it took a while before i was completely clear.

i guess the moral of the story is that you should always demand a chest x-ray.

JasmineFire said:

my mother would not leave the hospital when i had it 'till they did everything.

Haven't you been paying attention to Bush. Its NOT the doctors, ITS THE LAWYERS!

Stax said:

hi hun

Janfriend said:

Well at least their reporting it and yes, E! does (or at least did, I really can't watch it anymore) sensationalize but if they made up the fact that that happened, they would be sued so fast! There has to be some truth to it.

nakedpianoplayer said:

hi!