Joey's Biography

Joey was born and raised in New Orlean, Louisiana in 1959. He was the second oldest of four siblings. Joey passion for health, sports and theater was known  to all who knew him. In 1976 he was ball boy for the New Orleans Jazz and became friends with Pete Marvavich aka Pistol Pete. In 1984 Joey took his first trip to Hollywood. From there is when he knew that he wanted to become an actor.  In 1994 he got his role in a movie as Anthony Edwards stand in. From there in 1997 he had moved to Los Angeles to work on the hit medical show ER. As Anthony Edwards stand in, then from there he was an ordely and a background nurse. He had also been in other shows such as Harry's Law and The Crazy Ones.  Throughout his life he experienced anixey when it comes to being on stage, to many other things. When Hurricane Katrina hit Joey was on a beta blocker for a short amount of time after having his family and friends go through all that had happened.  

In 2015 Joey had went to a doctor to help with his anxiety and to try to feel better. He was first put on Prozac, to which it made him feel bad instantly. The doctor then started to medicate and add in more different medications. From 2015 to 2024 Joey was on several different medications throughout that time. He was disregarded multiple times from doctors. The story with that goes much deeper. Around 2019-2020 Joey had started to taper off the medications. That is when he really started to notice when he was having Dystonia, Akathisia, and Tardive Dyskenisa. No matter how many doctors he saw he would be told it was "incurable" that there is nothing that can be done. This was all from Benzodiazepines, Antidepressants and Antipsychotics. 

March of 2022 Joey had embarked the journey to Los Angeles after being in a hospital for a little over a month. With hopes to get better. That was something that he had always wanted since day one. Not be bedridden, not to be able to do the stuff he loved. It was extremely hard for him to be able to get up and  to take care of himself. To be able to sit in his favorite places. Even working out was hard, even though there was times it helped the pain. Most of the time it would be used against him.  He had tried alternative medications and nothing would help him. He tried botox to help with his eyes. He tried all these different things and never really had a full relief from the constant pain and the movements.

In January 2023. Joey was hospitalized and having some changes made. He embarked on the journey to go towards healing. Joey wanted to get DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) but every doctor would not really talk to him about it. As one said, " It would have to be at the very last resort." And so that would always discourage Joey into getting into healing. In October he had started the journey to start tapering off of the three medications he was on. He first started to go slowly, feeling confident that it can get better. As a month went by he started to have some medical complications. To that it lead to him to make a decision that he didn't want to have to face to. He loved life. He loved his friends, he loved working and being in the gym. 

January of 2024, he had make the most difficult decision there was. And he decided to stop eating and drinking. As the last week he was here, he was struggling intensely as each day that passed. In the early morning hours of January 14th, Joey passed away in his sleep. Things were happening as health wise too that he couldn't hold on much longer. Joey was loved by so many people. And is missed by so many. This is something that should of not had happened. Joey should still be here. 

As one of his close friends I had made a promise to tell his story. And I'll do that every chance that I can. Joey's story will never go down in vain.