Chyna, who rose to fame as a wrestler and actress, was found dead Wednesday in her Redondo Beach home, her manager said.
Anthony Anzaldo said she was found in the afternoon and that no cause of death had been determined. She was 46.
Redondo Beach police received a call from Anzaldo and the apartment building manager around 3:25 p.m., Lt. Todd Heywood said. When officers arrived, they found her dead on her bed.
The police department was investigating, but there were no obvious signs of foul play, Heywood said.
“The Redondo Beach Police received a 911 call from a friend of the apartment unit resident that the female inside was not breathing,” the police department said in a statement. “The friend told Redondo Beach Police that the female had not answered her phone in a few days, and went to the location to check on her welfare.”
Officials said a cause of death was under investigation by the police and LA. County coroner.
Chyna, who was born Joan Marie Laurer, was a star in World Wrestling Entertainment beginning in the mid 1990s. She billed herself as the “9th Wonder of the World” because her wrestling predecessor Andre the Giant had already called himself the eighth.
She was a member of the wrestling squad that dubbed itself “D-Generation X,” often wrestled against men and at one point was the WWE women’s champion.
Chyna also performed as an actor both in adult entertainment and mainstream films.
For a time, Chyna was a big name in popular culture. “If They Only Knew,” her autobiography, reached the New York Times bestseller list in 2001.
Laurer was a native of Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from the University of Tampa in Florida before taking up wrestling.
She joins a long list of WWE professional wrestlers who have died relatively young, including Rick Rude, Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hennig, the Ultimate Warrior and Owen Hart.
After leaving the WWE in 2001, Laurer posed for Playboy and appeared in adult films and on reality TV, including the shows “The Surreal Life” and “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.”
