Harry Demopoulos


Harry B. Demopoulos was an American researcher in the medical aspects of free radicals, especially in the areas of ischaemic injury, the toxicity of anticancer drugs, and in spinal cord injury. He was also a film actor, appearing in Clint Eastwood films.

Free radical research

Ischaemic injury is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in humans. For example, most deaths in stroke and heart attack are secondary to ischaemic injury, a consequence of the ischemic cascade. Thus, much research has been done into the causes and treatment of ischaemic injury. One are of this research involves the essential role of free radicals as modulators of ischaemic injury. This has resulted in therapeutic advances, such as the radical-scavenging neuroprotective agent NXY-059, which was under development for the treatment of stroke.
Demopoulos and his coworkers were active in this research. The opening sentence of a paper by Nita et al. states: "The concept of generation of free radicals during ischemia was first presented by Demopoulos, Flamm and co-workers..."

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Although Doris Duke made Demopoulos co-executor of her will, she later replaced him with Bernard Lafferty. After Duke's death, Demopoulos and others sued to remove Lafferty. Demopoulos subsequently sat on the board of trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation established under the will.

Personal life

Dr. Demopoulos was also a friend of Clint Eastwood, in whose films he appeared, and who also invested in his research for decades before Demopoulos's death on June 29, 2016.