Survivor Heartbreaking Loss!!! Remembering Keith Nale, Beloved Castaway Dies at 62 After a Private Battle With Cancer
PREAH SIHANOUK CITY Keith Nale during the second episode of SURVIVOR in Cambodia, themed “Second Chance”.
Keith Nale, who appeared on Survivor: San Juan del Sur and Survivor: Cambodia, has died. Family members told ET Online that Nale, 62, passed away Tuesday afternoon in Shreveport, Louisiana. His son Wes, who also participated in Survivor: San Juan del Sur, said, “He’d been battling cancer for the past few months and we found out about it in January.”
Firefighter Nale, who became a fan-favorite, was never a core member of a long-term alliance, but did make it all the way to the final four of 2014’s Survivor: San Juan del Sur thanks to his skill in Immunity Challenges, ET noted. He was voted out a day before the Final Tribal Council and later returned for Survivor: Cambodia in 2015.
Following his fourth-place exit from Survivor: San Juan del Sur, Nale told Uproxx, “You”re so close you can see it, you know what I mean. I want to say, ‘Well heck, I’d rather come in 10th than fourth or I’d rather come in 15th than fourth,’ but not really. You just feel like that at the moment.”
Another former contestant, Kelley Wentworth, shared a video of Nale driving she and others across the beach and called it her “favorite Survivor reward challenge… Keith Nale took us all away from the game for a short time, and this brief moment of ‘normal’ was unforgettable.”
She called Nale “a man with the purest heart, who brought humor into moments where it was needed most.”Firefighter Nale, who became a fan-favorite, was never a core member of a long-term alliance, but did make it all the way to the final four of 2014’s Survivor: San Juan del Sur thanks to his skill in Immunity Challenges, ET noted. He was voted out a day before the Final Tribal Council and later returned for Survivor: Cambodia in 2015.Firefighter Nale, who became a fan-favorite, was never a core member of a long-term alliance, but did make it all the way to the final four of 2014’s Survivor: San Juan del Sur thanks to his skill in Immunity Challenges, ET noted. He was voted out a day before the Final Tribal Council and later returned for Survivor: Cambodia in 2015.
Following his fourth-place exit from Survivor: San Juan del Sur, Nale told Uproxx, “You”re so close you can see it, you know what I mean. I want to say, ‘Well heck, I’d rather come in 10th than fourth or I’d rather come in 15th than fourth,’ but not really. You just feel like that at the moment.”
He also said his firefighter colleagues had been encouraging and “impressed” given he was 53 at the time. “Now granted that’s not 93, but that’s not 23 either.”
When Nale returned for season 31, he said during an episode, “When do you get a second chance for something crazy like this?”
Jeremy Collins, who won that season, tweeted his condolences:
Another former contestant, Kelley Wentworth, shared a video of Nale driving she and others across the beach and called it her “favorite Survivor reward challenge… Keith Nale took us all away from the game for a short time, and this brief moment of ‘normal’ was unforgettable.”
She called Nale “a man with the purest heart, who brought humor into moments where it was needed most.”
“Play to Win” – Kelley Wentworth, Keith Nale, Kelly Wiglesworth, Jeremy Collins, Ciera Eastin, Joe Anglim, Kass McQuillen, Spencer Bledsoe, Tasha Fox, Andrew Savage, Abi-Maria Gomes, Stephen Fishbach and Kimmi Kappenberg at Tribal Council during the
‘Survivor’ fans took to social media to reminisce about their favorite on-screen Nale moments and share their condolences with Nale’s family.
“I used to say I could watch Keith Nale play EVERY season of Survivor. He was entertaining and seemed to have an incredible heart,” one user wrote in a Twitter post. “#RIPKeithNale. Survivor Legend.”
“I’ll always advocate for how fantastic of a player he was,” another fan wrote. “My condolences to his family and the greater Survivor community. RIP King.”
