The Cleaning Lady star Adan Canto died on Monday, January 8 after a private battle with appendiceal cancer. He was 42.
“Adan had a depth of spirit that few truly knew. Those who glimpsed it were changed forever,” Canto’s reps at UTA, Entertainment360 and Viewpoint said in a statement to Deadline on Tuesday, January 9. “He will be greatly missed by so many.”
Canto is survived by wife Stephanie Ann Canto and their two kids: Roman Alder, 3, and Eve Josephine, 1.
The Mexican-American actor started his career in Mexico as a singer-songwriter before getting started as an actor. He transitioned to working in the U.S. when he scored his first American TV gig on The Following, starring Kevin Bacon. Following a major arc on the horror show, he appeared as Sunspot in X-Men: Days of Future Past and went on to star in Narcos, Blood & Oil and The Catch.
Canto is best known for his 53-episode role on Designated Survivor, the Kiefer Sutherland drama, as vice presidential candidate Aaron Shore. Following three years on the series, he starred in the film Bruised, which was Halle Berry‘s 2020 directorial debut about an MMA fighter’s journey to redemption.
The late actor started his gig on Fox’s The Cleaning Lady in 2022. Canto appeared in every episode of the drama, which follows Thony De La Rosa (Elodie Yung), a doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her son but must work as a cleaning lady to make ends meet. She witnesses a murder committed by Arman Morales (Canto), and he quickly pulls her into a life of organized crime.
The drama went into production on season 3 in December 2023, but Canto’s health prevented him from filming. He was expected to reprise his role later in the season. Deadline reports that The Cleaning Lady season 3 premiere will pay tribute to Canto with a memorial card on Tuesday, March 5.
Though his cancer battle was not public, Canto explained to Anthem Magazine in April 2022 that he was “a pretty private guy.” He said, “I like to keep private matters private—the good and the bad, you know what I mean? I enjoy my family. My priority is my family. I kind of compartmentalize Hollywood and family. And that’s not to say that people who expose or put their entire private lives out there are doing it wrong. Everybody’s equipped to living in certain ways and they make their choices accordingly. I just choose to do things in the way that works for me and my family.”
