Danny Gans' longtime manager and friend, Chip Lightman, said he was shocked to learn the late entertainer's chronic back pain was so severe he needed to combat it with hydromorphone, the prescription painkiller that ultimately lead to his death last month.

"Dan wasn't a complainer," he told the AP after the coroner's report was released Tuesday. "If he was in pain, he would just suck it up and go on  with the show."

Lightman said that the ease in which Gans brought to his physically-demanding show masked his deteriorating condition.

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• AP
• Chip Lightman
• Danny Gans
• Hydromorphone
• Painkillers