‘How to Eat Fried Worms’ child actor Blake Garrett’s cause of death confirmed

Former child actor Blake Garrett’s cause of death has been confirmed, five months after his death on February 8 at age 33.

Blake, best-known for his role as Plug in the 2006 film How to Eat Fried Worms, died from an accidental fentanyl overdose, according to the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s report obtained by TMZ.

According to the report, Blake’s cause of death is listed as acute fentanyl toxicity. It also notes that he died at a sober living house in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

One week before his death, Blake was rushed to the hospital after experiencing “intense pain” and was later diagnosed with shingles, his mother, Carol, previously told the outlet.

Carol added that she feared her son “may have self-medicated to cope with the pain from the viral infection” after three years of sobriety.

At the time, Carol feared her son’s death might have been accidental.

Born in Texas, Blake made his acting debut in local productions of Annie and Grease before he joined the cast of Barney’s Colorful World International Tour. 

He made his big-screen debut in the 2006 American children’s comedy film How to Eat Fried Worms, written and directed by Bob Dolman and based on the 1973 children’s book of the same name. 

Blake starred as one of the bullies, Plug, a classmate of new boy Billy, who eats 15 worms in 15 days to win a $50 bet. It also starred James Rebhorn, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Tom Cavanagh.

In 2007, the cast of How to Eat Fried Worms, which also included Hailee Eisenberg, the sister of Oscar-winning actor Jesse Eisenberg, won Best Young Ensemble in a Feature Film at the Young Artist Foundation.

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For his big-screen debut, Blake was taught to do a 360-degree move on a bicycle by a stuntman. 

He told his local paper, The Oklahoman: “There were rows of bicycles, and they let me have first pick. There was one scene where we were riding on a gravel road and got to slide to a stop. 

“The guys who could ride worked on that scene. They had a camera on the ground, and in one scene I slid and gravel hit the camera. They really liked that shot, and that’s the one they used in the movie.”

Blake also starred in the pilot episode of the television series Inconceivable, which only ran for two episodes in 2005 before it was canceled.