Joseph Gordon-Levitt's brother, 'Burning Dan,' has died [video] [updated]

The death of Dan Gordon-Levitt, the older brother of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was announced Tuesday on Twitter by the "Inception" and "[500] Days of Summer" actor, who urged followers to celebrate his brother's life.

"He spins fire for a living," Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 29, told David Letterman in July. "It's like ... a ball and chain and he spins them around in cool patterns. You know, if you feel a certain way, it looks really cool to your eyes."

Nicknamed "Burning Dan," the fire-spinning flow artist and flow-arts teacher was found unresponsive early Monday in his Hollywood home, People magazine reports. The cause of death was unknown pending an autopsy, officials said.

[Updated, 1:30 p.m.: The death may have been drug-related, E! News reports, quoting an L.A. coroner's office official who said it was originally reported as a possible overdose, and that one of two friends present at the scene early Monday was taken to the hospital. Burning Dan was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.]

In August, Burning Dan explained to PopEater: "Flow arts is a combination of performance art and dance and meditation and yoga and sort of self-transformation, to give you a fun way of doing something that's really good for you and helps you be an even smoother, more awesome person than you already were." In that same interview, he described how close the brothers were.

On his Flow Temple teacher bio, he said: "My breakthrough into the world of Flow Arts came later that year [2002] at my first Burning Man with the revelation that there are no 'Other Kinds of People' and that anybody can do ANYTHING."

(See Burning Dan in action, above, and Joseph's Letterman interview below, after the break.)

Dan Gordon-Levitt was 36.

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the Beverly Hills Hotel on June 25. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

 

Related dispatch from the Ministry of Gossip:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the 'Inception' premiere [video]

 

Comments

[All Hallows Eve]

I'm sure it must be better in person...

RIP

[Patrick Haley]

RIP Burning Dan. Your bright flame will be missed by everyone who meet you. I hope the place you are now, wherever that may be, to be full of fire, love, and happiness.

[mushaboomsie]

A true shining star.

[may]

sad for JGL

[kazz]

very sad