World Wrestling Entertainment spokesman Robert Zimmerman says he died Friday at a Houston hospital.
Family friend Dawn Marie Psaltis said Saturday that Fatu was found unresponsive at home by family and never regained consciousness. She said doctors indicated he died of a heart attack.
The Wrestlers Rescue advocacy group says Fatu was born in American Samoa and was part of a wrestling family that included cousin Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Fatu had two uncles who wrestled in the 1980s as The Wild Samoans.
Fatu was released in June by /*WWE*/.