Robert Carradine's children have filed a lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles, alleging that staff at UCLA's Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital failed to check on the actor every 15 minutes as required by hospital policy before he attempted suicide inside the locked Westwood facility. The suit, which claims both wrongful death and elder abuse, was filed August 7, according to the family's legal filing.
Carradine voluntarily checked into the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital on January 16, 2026, according to the family's lawsuit as reported by WSOC TV. About 19 hours after his admission, on January 17, the lawsuit alleges Carradine attempted suicide inside the facility — an incident the family says was made possible because staff allowed him to walk into the locked psychiatric unit with a belt still in his possession. The 71-year-old actor never regained consciousness and spent five weeks in an intensive care unit before he died on February 23. The Los Angeles medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, determining the cause to be anoxic brain injury and hanging.
Court documents reported by The Daily Beast indicate that UCLA's own admission belongings form documented staff's failure to confiscate the belt despite facility rules treating it as contraband, and that an unapproved rolling bedside table was also left inside his room. The family's suit claims several hospital protocols were ignored or not followed altogether during Carradine's stay.
Allegations of Conflicting Records
The lawsuit goes further than describing missed checks and overlooked contraband. According to TheWrap, the filing alleges UCLA's observation records inaccurately documented Carradine's activity, including an entry stating he participated in group therapy after he had already been found unresponsive in his room. The same outlet reports the complaint contends UCLA Health's internal investigation and written observation records directly conflicted with surveillance video footage captured inside the facility.
The Wrap reported that Carradine's children filed the lawsuit on August 7, and the case was subsequently picked up by USA Today and TMZ, both citing TheWrap's reporting. UCLA did not return requests for comment from TheWrap, USA Today, or TMZ, per those outlets' reporting.
An Elder Abuse Claim Under California Law
By including an elder abuse cause of action, Carradine's family is elevating the case beyond a standard medical malpractice claim. The suit relies on California's Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, codified under Welfare and Institutions Code section 15600 et seq., which protects residents aged 65 and older and allows civil recovery for custodial neglect and reckless failures in care, according to Moran Law. At 71, Carradine falls within the population the statute is designed to protect, and his family is seeking several types of damages from the hospital.
Carradine had suffered from ongoing suicidal ideation, and his family disclosed after his death that he had fought a nearly two-decade battle with bipolar disorder, severe depression, and anxiety, as reported by The Guardian. His brother, actor Keith Carradine, spoke publicly at the time to combat mental health stigma, saying, “there is no shame in it,” in comments relayed to Deadline and cited by The Guardian.
A Hollywood Family, A Storied Career
Born in Los Angeles in 1954, Robert Carradine was the youngest son of actor John Carradine, placing him within a prominent multi-generational Hollywood acting family alongside brothers David and Keith Carradine. Over a career spanning more than 40 years that began with Westerns in the early 1970s, he gained widespread recognition playing fraternity president Lewis Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds and later as television father Sam McGuire on Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire, according to reporting from WWL-TV.
A Facility Already Stretched Thin
The Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital operates as a 74-bed “hospital within a hospital” on the fourth floor of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where inpatient psychiatric beds routinely operate at maximum capacity, according to UCLA Health. The facility's capacity constraints have drawn renewed attention since February, when UCLA Health announced a $100 million gift from Stewart and Lynda Resnick toward a $450 million replacement facility in Mid-Wilshire that would expand the university's psychiatric capacity to 119 inpatient beds, as Forbes reported. Hoodline previously covered the planned Mid-Wilshire facility in its piece on the new psych hospital's Olympic Blvd site.
UCLA has not publicly responded to the specific allegations in the Carradine lawsuit, and the university did not return requests for comment from multiple outlets covering the case. The claims outlined in the family's filing remain unproven allegations in ongoing civil litigation.
