Christopher Boykin Cause Of Death: ‘Big Black’ From Show ‘Rob & Big’ Reportedly Suffered Heart Attack


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Christopher Boykin died on Tuesday, and the cause of death for the MTV star known as Big Black could point to a heart attack.

The 45-year-old television star was found dead on Tuesday, his rep reported. There was not yet an official cause of death noted for Christopher Boykin, but initial reports indicated that he may have suffered a heart attack. There are no more details yet available about Big Black’s cause of death, including exactly when and where he died.

Boykin was best known as Big Black from a string of MTV reality shows starring skateboarder and entrepreneur Rob Drydek. Boykin was Drydek’s best friend and also served as his bodyguard, appearing in Rob & Big along with several episodes of follow-up shows Fantasy Factory and Ridiculousness.

As Drydek later said, he and Boykin decided the MTV shows had run their course and decided to forge their own careers in Hollywood.

“It was a strange period,” Dyrdek said in a 2016 interview (via People magazine) about life after their MTV shows were off the air.

“I had been a pro skateboarder for years, so me transitioning to mainstream fame was relatively smooth, right, where for him, the idea that man he was like working security two years earlier and now he’s on television, it was a much different dynamic. But I think we both struggled with I didn’t want to be known as like Rob from Rob & Big … and I think he didn’t want to be known for like the sidekick. So that created a lot of that tension between me and him.”

Drydek noted that there was even tension while they were still filming the show. Though there rumors that Boykin was upset at a disparity in pay between the two, Drydek said this was not the case, noting that the two were paid equally and that the tension came as a natural result of their work.

“I think it was more the fundamental struggle of not wanting to be so connected to each another,” Dyrdek told In Depth With Graham Bensinger. “We literally would film some of the funniest things we’ve ever done and be losing it and then walk away and not talk to each other.”

As A.V. Club noted, the somewhat unlikely friendship between the two was the main selling point for Rob & Big and their subsequent MTV reality shows.

“A Navy veteran, Boykin met pro skater Rob Dyrdeck when the latter was casting a security guard for a skating skit, and the two quickly became close friends. When Dyrdek approached MTV about turning his life into a reality show, he pitched the pair’s odd couple friendship—contrasting his own boisterousness with Boykin’s soft-spoken calm—as the central hook for the show.”

While Drydek was used to the spotlight, it was a different path to success for Christopher Boykin. Before becoming a bodyguard, Boykin served in the U.S. Navy. He later started his own clothing line in 2007 called Big Black (Do Work).

Big Black was known largely for his enormous stature, standing 6-foot-6 and weighing a reported 375 pounds.

After word of Big Black’s death spread, many celebrities took to social media to remember him, including Steelo Brim of Ridiculousness.

“My brain can’t truly comprehend this,” he wrote. “As soon as we met we became friends. Genuine, Funny, Family Man, just an Overall Great guy. May God Rest his soul and he

“As soon as we met we became friends. Genuine, Funny, Family Man, just an Overall Great guy. May God Rest his soul and he make everyone in heaven smile like he did on earth! LOVE!”

People magazine reported that the cause of death for Christopher Boykin was a heart attack.

[Featured Image by Noel Vasquez/Getty Images]

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