Actor and model Ethan Browne’s the cause of death has been revealed.
The The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner confirmed on Tuesday, January 13 that Ethan, the composer’s son Jackson Brownedied of the “effects of fentanyl, methamphetamine and lidocaine,” according to documents obtained by Us Weekly.
The medical examiner decided that the manner of death was accidental. He was 52 years old.
Jackson, 77, shared news of his son’s death in November 2025.
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“It is with deep sorrow that we share that on the morning of November 25, 2025, Ethan Browne, the son of Jackson Browne and Phyllis Majorwas found unresponsive at his home and has passed away,” shared a statement through Jackson’s Facebook read on November 26, 2025. “We ask for privacy and respect for the family during this difficult time. No further details are available at this time.”
Jackson and Major welcomed Ethan in 1973, three years before Major committed suicide at age 30. Jackson later married Lynee Sweeney in 1981, welcoming son Ryan the following year before divorcing in 1983.
Ethan grew up following in his father’s footsteps making a career in Hollywood. She was only 1 year old when she made the cover of Rolling Stone in 1974 next to Jackson, where the composer held his son in his arms while caressing his face. The 1995 film Hackers would later serve as Ethan’s feature film debut. In 2002, he appeared in the TV show 2002 Birds of prey before being issued in 2004 Raising Helen next to Kate Hudson.
according to Mark Ronson’s Report 2025 Night People: How to DJ in New York City in the 90sEthan was also a working actor and appeared in campaigns for designers such as Isaac Mizrahi before his death. Ronson recalled meeting Ethan in his book, describing him as “the real deal” who has his late mother’s “sharp cheekbones” and “an angular face and soulful gaze that seemed to reveal his deepest truths, even from a glossy page.”
Ethan was also a father, fostering a daughter before his death.
“Ethan is a great father. He’s a great son, a great man. I love seeing him with his kids,” Jackson said of his son in a May 2022 interview with True Rock Revival. “When I see him in his movies, modeling, with his daughter and being a great dad, I feel so proud. It makes me feel like I’ve done something really good in my life.”
Jackson has been candid about how his own “main focus” became fatherhood after Major’s death.
“I just had two things that I hoped would fit together: being a songwriter and being a father. And I looked at it like, if I’m just going to be a father, hopefully I’ll know and do it,” the “These Days” songwriter said in an interview with route magazine in June 2021. “But life isn’t like that, and you don’t get a notice in the mail saying you’re failing as a parent. You think you have the advice and help you need, and sometimes you don’t or you don’t.”
He continued: “The mistakes I’ve made as a parent stay with me. I think about them quite often. It’s not that you’re not trying all the time. It’s not that I wasn’t trying then. You just get distracted by other things and some things don’t cross your mind. Or maybe you ignore advice that you should have taken, because you should have taken it.”