Dr. Jack Kevorkian died early Friday morning, the Detroit Free Press reports. He was 83.
Once known as "Dr. Death" for his controversial advocacy of assisted suicide in terminally ill cases, Kevorkian suffered from kidney and heart problems at the time of his death; he was not placed on life support.
Kevorkian was surrounded by his niece, Ava Janus, and his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, when he passed. "It was peaceful," Morganroth said. "He didn't feel a thing."
In 2010, Al Pacino won an Emmy for his portrayal of Kevorkian in HBO's You Don't Know Jack.
"He couldn't be better," Kevorkian told Us Weekly of Pacino's performance at the film's New York premiere. "The only word for it in English is 'superb,' and even that is a weak word."
Kevorkian assisted about 130 terminally or chronically ill patients in their deaths in the 1990s. In 1999, he was convicted of second-degree murder after sending a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to CBS' 60 Minutes; his medical license was subsequently revoked.
