The original Doink the clown was portrayed by Matt Osborne, who unfortunately died in June 2013 with heart disease as a contributing cause. He was only 55. The WWE failed to offer any sort of condolences on their flagship show of Raw. Doink had been one of the most memorable characters of the Cartoon Era, surely he deserved some sort of mention? Well, perhaps it was down to the fact that WWE have had numerous other men play the Doink character. Maybe they intend to have Doink portrayed again in the future, so they opted not to advertise the fact that Doink was in fact dead. There was also speculation at the time (which proved unfounded) that drugs might have been involved in Doink's death. This may have played a part in WWE's decision not to acknowledge the news. A wwe.com tribute was eventually published, a mere few lines, with the credit of 'written by wwe.com staff'.
