Former Major League Baseball player-turned-actor Brad Lesley has died at the age of 54, reports TMZ.
Lesley's ex-wife, Chiho Svimonoff, told the website that the former athlete had been living in a nursing home, where he was receiving dialysis for kidney problems, for the past seven months. According to Svimonoff, the "Little Big League" star was rushed to hospital on Saturday night, and later died there from kidney failure.
Lesley made his Major League debut on July 31, 1982, pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, and was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1984 and let go from the team in 1985.
The former 6-foot-6-inch athlete went on to showbusiness, appearing on the Japanese game show "Takeshi's Castle" in 1986, and furthered his credits in a number of movies in the 1990s, including "Mr. Baseball," "A Boy Called Hate," "Big Monster on Campus" and the 1994 film "Little Big League," in which he played an angry pitcher.