VIRGINIA BEACH—
Perry Moore, a 39-year-old novelist and Hollywood producer from Virginia Beach, died in his New York high-rise Thursday, possibly from a reaction to pain medication, his father said.Moore, who graduated from Norfolk Academy and the University of Virginia, was best known as the executive producer of the "Chronicles of Narnia" movies, and author of the novel, "Hero."
Moore's death came as he was poised for even greater successes, his family said.
"The night before he died, he had an hour-long conversation with his mom," father Bill Moore said as he waited at the airport for a flight to New York. "He had gotten all the good news he could possibly get."
Perry Moore told his family he'd secured financing for another Narnia movie, "The Magician's Nephew." He was also working with Starz, a cable-movie company, to adapt his novel, "Hero," and he was preparing to meet with actress Julianne Moore on another project.
"He had everything in the world going for him," his father said. "He was very upbeat."
A New York medical examiner told Moore's father that Perry Moore "was in excellent health and in excellent condition, and he could not find anything wrong with him." Bill Moore said the doctor told him it could be eight weeks for toxicology testing to determine an exact cause of death. Bill Moore said his son had been postponing knee and back surgery and was taking prescription pain medication. Doctors told Bill Moore his son may have developed a tolerance to the medicine, leading him to take higher doses. That may have contributed to his death, Bill Moore said. New York media reports that Perry Moore overdosed on Oxycontin are wrong, Bill Moore said.
Moore's father said he and his family are planning a memorial service in New York followed by a second service in Virginia Beach. They have not decided on a date.
Perry Moore returned to Virginia Beach in December to host an annual holiday party with longtime friend and Virginia Beach attorney Bretta Zimmer Lewis.
"He was the greatest person I ever met," Lewis wrote on her Facebook page Friday. "Maybe too good for this world."
