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Born July 10th, 1998
Died July 31st, 2023
Angus Cloud, who died suddenly at age 25, was an Irish-American actor best known for playing drug dealer Fezco in the HBO drama Euphoria.
Cloud was an untrained actor with a raw, naturalistic screen presence that made him a favourite with fans of the series. Cloud imbued Fezco with warmth and generosity, while hinting at a deeper turmoil under his amiable exterior. It was an impressive balancing act that brought humanity to the sometimes chilly Euphoria, a drama that has drawn controversy for its nudity and scenes of drug taking.
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His brief screen career was a story of happy accidents. Raised in Northern California, he moved to New York on a whim. He was working in a chicken restaurant when he was scouted by a HBO representative who worked with prominent casting agent Jennifer Venditti. Assuming the woman was a scammer, he was wary. “I was confused and didn’t want to give her my phone number,” he recalled. “I thought it was a scam.”
He went to the audition anyway and, after two table readings, was cast as Fezco. His first scene was opposite Zendaya, who played teen drug addict Rue and was already famous as the star of Spider-Man and The Greatest Showman. It was the first of many moments in his life in acting when Cloud couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
“I was trying to look normal and relaxed and chill,” he told GQ. “But on the inside, “I’m like, ‘I don’t know what I am doing. Why did they bring me over here for this? They should have gotten a real actor for this job.’”
[ Euphoria actor Angus Cloud dies aged 25 ]
Cloud was born in Oakland, California. His full name is Conor Angus Cloud Hickey. His father was from Co Meath, and Cloud frequently visited Ireland. Before Euphoria, he told the Wall Street Journal, he had been considering moving full-time to Ireland. “All my family lives out there.”
His father, also named Conor, grew up in Ashbourne, where he captained the local rugby team. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s before settling in Oakland, in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Conor snr, who died in May, was remembered by his former rugby team-mates as a “gentle soul” and “force of nature”. He was laid to rest in Ashbourne a week before Cloud’s death. Angus had travelled to Ireland for the funeral.
Cloud’s mother, Lisa Cloud, is an actor from Santa Barbara in central California. She played a camp counsellor in Lindsay Lohan’s The Parent Trap in 1998 and was a saleswoman in the Oscar-winning American Beauty in 1999. She also portrayed a PE teacher in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks in 1990.
Angus was the oldest of three and had younger twin sisters, Fiona and Molly. He attended high school at the prestigious Oakland School for the Arts, where future Euphoria star Zendaya was a fellow student (though they never met). Rather than pursue acting, he studied production design and hoped for a career working behind the scenes on film and TV sets.
But Hollywood must have seemed like a pipe dream when he moved to New York on a whim. Before being cast in Euphoria, he was waiting tables in a “chicken and waffle restaurant” near the Barclay Centre in Brooklyn.
[ Euphoria: The show that makes teenage self-destruction look weightless and beautiful ]
Fezco was initially written as a minor character and was supposed to die at the end of the first series. But he became an immediate hit with audiences: viewers were drawn to Cloud’s vulnerable and generous portrayal of a drug dealer with a heart of gold. He struck up an instant chemistry with Zendaya, whose star power he more than matched in their scenes. She was one of the first to pay tribute after his death.
“Words are not enough to describe the infinite beauty that is Angus. I’m so grateful I got the chance to know him in this life, to call him a brother, to see his warm, kind eyes and bright smile, or hear his infectious cackle of a laugh,” the actor wrote on Instagram. “I know people use this expression often when talking about folks they love ... ‘They could light up any room they entered.’ But boy, let me tell you, he was the best at it.”
Euphoria tells the story of Zendaya’s Rue, a smart, personable kid who risks throwing her future away by descending into drug addiction. As her supplier, Fezco could have easily been a villainous figure. However, Cloud gives him a brotherly tenderness: he is the key to Rue’s destruction and someone who cares for her. It’s remarkable tightrope walk, and Cloud, who had the aura of someone who had just fallen out of bed and wasn’t sure what day it was, sold viewers on the duality.
he seemed both slightly frazzled and completely underwhelmed by the attention. This was made clear in a viral clip from the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in which he mumbled through an interview
He was such a hit that showrunner Sam Levinson decided to keep Fezco around and expand his role by giving him a younger brother, Ashtray. It isn’t clear how or even if Fezco and Ashtray are related – but Cloud made audiences believe this unlikely duo were a family.
Cloud became a fashion icon known for his extrovert dress sense. “Angus Cloud is New York Fashion Week’s unlikely new star,” proclaimed Vogue last September. The piece praised his “bold style” and “brazen approach to dressing”.
He never took fame for granted. Instead, he seemed both slightly frazzled and completely underwhelmed by the attention. This was made clear in a viral clip from the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in which he mumbled through an interview. “That’s what up, you know what I’m saying,” he stutters in reply to a question about the next season of Euphoria. “I mean ... That’s wild.” He said a lot without saying anything.
Alongside Euphoria, Cloud appeared in music videos by Noah Cyrus and Juice WRLD. He had also filmed parts in upcoming horror film Your Lucky Day and Freaky Tales, a drama by Captain Marvel directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. But the tragic truth is that he died with his potential unfulfilled.
He is survived by his mother, Lisa, and Fiona and Molly, his sisters.