John Crawley, Known As KingBeardX on TikTok, Has Died at 47

The TikTok creator known as KingBeardX, whose real name is John Crawley, died on Aug. 18, 2025, according to TMZ. The outlet reported that a funeral director in John's home state of Mississippi confirmed the news. Now, John's fans and those who sometimes simply caught his videos by chance want to know what his cause of death was.

John's videos often featured his reactions to other people either eating food or making it. His TikTok bio still says he is "maybe" the "funniest dude on the Internet." There was even a time when he teased a local meet and greet in a TikTok video, because his fan base was growing so quickly. After the news of John's death broke, fans began leaving tons of comments to share their love for the TikTok creator.

Per TMZ, John's cause of death was cardiac arrest. The Glenfield Funeral Home director in New Albany, Miss., explained to the outlet that John died in the hospital. He spent two weeks hospitalized before he died. John's final video he shared before his death was in late July 2025, and it was one where he asked about interest in the meet and greet.

Under the video, one fan commented after John's death, "His last video was him wanting to meet his fans." Another wrote, "This is not the meet and greet we wanted, John."

Someone else pointed out in the comment section, "I love how we all are finding out about this and all coming to pay our respects on his last video. You all are awesome. Rest easy King Beard."

Prior to John's death, his friend Anthony Caruso started a GoFundMe to help John with medical expenses because he did not have health insurance. The GoFundMe says that John was the "breadwinner" to support his family. At the time the fundraiser started, John was in the ICU.

One of John's family members shared more information about his condition on the GoFundMe page before John died.

"He went to the hospital; he was having trouble breathing," they wrote. "Doctors put him on a ventilator … we went past 66 percent (O2 levels) and he stopped breathing. They (put him into the ICU and) brought it back up to 100% (O2 levels). He just had a tube placed in his chest … his breathing condition is still very bad."

Anthony later updated it to share the news of John's death.

John had more than 2 million followers on TikTok. On Instagram, he managed to gain almost 1 million followers before he died. John also likely made money from his fame as a content creator on TikTok, thanks to his reaction videos and fan base. Outside of social media, John also had a Cameo account and a merch store.

On his Cameo, fans could pay $25 for a personalized video. At the time of John's death, he had hundreds of Cameo reviews and sales under his belt. For now, his KingBeardX account is still up on TikTok.