( CNN ) -- The death of actor Jeff Conaway was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County Coroner 's Office on Monday . Conaway , who was in the TV series `` Taxi '' and the movie `` Grease , '' died May 27 after being found unresponsive 17 days earlier , his manager said . The accidental death came as a result of the drugs found in his urine when he was admitted to the hospital on May 10 , according to the report . It also stated that it is not known how long Conaway 's brain was without oxygen before the actor was taken to the hospital , and that he `` may have aspirated on his own vomit . '' Pneumonia was initially ruled the cause of death , and the doctor who treated him for drug addiction for years said his dependence on prescription painkillers eventually cost him his life . `` Jeff was a severe , severe opiate addict with chronic pain , one of the most serious and dangerous combination of problems you could possibly interact with , '' Dr. Drew Pinsky , an addiction medicine specialist , said during a taping for a May `` Dr. Drew '' show on HLN . `` The pain seemed to be motivating him back to the opiates , and I told him for years that it was going to kill him , '' Pinsky said . In the weeks before his death , Conaway , 60 , suffered from pneumonia and sepsis . He was in a medically induced coma in an Encino , California , hospital for two weeks , manager Phil Brock said . His family surrounded Conaway in his hospital room on May 26 when he was taken off life support , Brock said . Conaway 's struggle with alcohol and drug addiction was chronicled in 2008 on the TV reality show `` Celebrity Rehab With Dr . Drew . '' `` What happens is , like with most opiate addicts , eventually they take a little too much , not much more than usual , and they aspirate , so what 's in their mouth gets into their lungs , '' Pinsky said . `` That causes a rapidly progressing and overwhelming pneumonia that they usually do n't know that they have , because they 're sort of too out of it because of the drugs . And by the time they get to the hospital , it 's too late . That 's what happened with Jeff . '' There was no evidence he ever intentionally overdosed , Pinsky said . Rachel Wells contributed to this report .
the Los Angeles County Coroner 's Office , May 27 , died May at a California hospital after being taken off of life support . Drugs were found in Conaway 's urine at hospital admission . `` Drew Pinsky was a severe , severe opiate addict with chronic pain , '' addiction specialist said in May 27 .