Figure Skating Champ "Bowman the Showman" Found Dead

Former US figure skating champion Christopher Bowman was found dead of a possible drug overdose at the age of 40.  Bowman, whose nickname came about because of his flair and style on the ice, was pronounced dead at 12:06 PM Friday in a motel in the North Hills section of Los Angeles.  An autopsy is planned for this weekend according to Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale, although additional details on the possible overdose were not available.

"He just passed away in his sleep," Bowman's mother Joyce, told the Detroit Free Press.  "His friend told me that he was fine.  He just went to bed and didn't wake up."

Bowman won the US men's figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in 1987 and 1991.   Internationally, he won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships and a bronze in 1990.  In the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics he was a member of the US team and finished seventh and fourth respectively.  He was a former child actor (Little House on the Prairie) and one of the best known skating personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  He had recently begun acting again and has a role in the upcoming Down and Distance with Gary Busey and directed by Brian De Palma.

Brian Boitano, 1988 Olympic champion said of Bowman "If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would pick Christopher as one."  He spoke of Bowman's "natural charisma, natural athleticism" saying "he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds and seemed so relaxed about it."

Through the years, however, Bowman had his share of problems, battling drugs and undergoing treatment at least twice.  In 1993 he was beaten in a hotel in a run-down neighborhood in Pittsburgh while traveling with the Ice Capades and in November 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors involving drinking and having a gun.

Bowman leaves behind a daughter.