Andrew Breitbart: 'They couldn't revive him,' father-in-law says

Andrew Breitbart, the 43-year-old conservative writer who died Thursday morning, was found collapsed on the sidewalk near his Westwood home while taking a nighttime walk, his father-in-law told The Times.

Breitbart was found about 12:30 or 1 a.m.

"He was walking near the house somewhere.... He was taken by paramedics to UCLA and they couldn't revive him," said his father-in-law, actor Orson Bean, who spoke with his daughter, Susannah Bean Breitbart, about what happened.

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"We're devastated. I loved him like a son," Bean said. "It looks like a heart attack, but no one knows until" an autopsy is done.

Bean said experts at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood suspected he died of natural causes.

Breitbart's mother-in-law, Alison Mills Bean, called Breitbart "one of the most genuine people I’ve met in my life.... He always spoke the truth of his heart and no matter what people agreed or disagreed with him he never wavered.

"And he was loved by a lot of people. And I know a lot of people found fault with his points of view ... but everyone loved him. It is a great loss for everybody."

Breitbart is survived by his wife, four children, Samson, 12; Mia, 10; Charlie, 6; and William, 4, his sister, Tracy, and his parents, Jerry and Arlene.

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--- Rong-Gong Lin II

Photo: Andrew Breitbart at his home in Westwood. Credit: Reed Saxon / Associated Press