Degrassi’s Neil ‘Wheels’ Hope: The lost years of a Canadian TV icon

During his time in Hamilton, Ontario, fallen Degrassi star Neil Hope would frequently visit Cheapies Records and Tapes. His good friend, Scott Bell, who works behind the counter, vividly recalls a visit in early November, 2007 - the last time Neil would set foot in the shop.

The man affectionately known as "Wheels" was sporting an eye patch and his speech was rather incoherent, says Bell in a Toronto Star story. "That was the last time I saw him."

But Hope's peculiar behaviour was nothing new for Bell. Every now and then, Hope would visit the music story with his PlayStation 2 in hand. He'd sell it for some quick cash, only to return a few weeks later to buy it right back. Hope was a diabetic and suffered the occasional blackout, and as he explained to Bell, he'd often wake up to find his money had gone missing.

It's been nearly two weeks since the news broke of Hope's inconspicuous death, and the emerging details of his final years continue to add tragedy to this already tragic tale.

His body was discovered on November 25, 2007, in a rooming house in Hamilton, Ontario. A victim of a heart attack at 35, Hope had been dead for nearly two weeks. His room was littered with insulin vials, which were filled two months prior yet never used.

"Hope was, on the surface, an upbeat and personable guy but he struggled with bouts of depression and severe diabetes made worse by alcohol," reveals Katie Daubs in the Star. "He was a private man, and his final years were a mystery to many — a rarity in a digital age. It would take just over four years for his family to learn he was buried in an unmarked plot and even longer to learn the details of his final days."

Unlike many of his Degrassi peers, Hope slipped into obscurity after the show fell off the air, failing to leave a typical paper trail of car loans, home purchases and the like. He had a couple of unresolved GO train infractions, a slew of acquaintances with couches to crash on and a distant family that feared for his well-being.

"He got a taste of the limelight early. He was a little bit spoiled, and once it was gone he didn't know how to handle it," explains older brother Danny Hope.

The Hope family had been searching for Neil for years, which had loved ones growing more worried with every passing day. Though Neil was a drifter, it wasn't like him to not check in from time to time. When the family got wind of Neil's passing, they refused to sugar-coat his many struggles. Neil was a kind soul that loved his Toronto Maple Leafs, Warren Zevon and his nieces, but he drank too much, didn't take care of his health and never seemed to embrace responsibility.

"I don't think he wanted to face reality," shares sister-in-law Tracy Hope. "I don't think he ever really grew up either. He was just a big kid."

Hope found himself travelling across the country, bouncing between jobs that included stints at Pizza Pizza and Money Mart. His financial situation was far from stable and his health on the back of his mind. When in Hamilton, Hope would often stop by Bell's house to watch his beloved Leafs. As Bell recalls, Hope would drink about 12 beers in a couple of hours while checking his blood pressure incessantly. Bell and his wife used to call him 'Neils,' a clever pun on the his Degrassi character, which almost seemed to mirror the the troubled actor's life.

"Like many actors on the show, he found his Degrassi character followed him — a source of annoyance, humour and occasional joy, depending on who you ask," shares Daubs in the story. "On Degrassi, Wheels was a complex character. His adopted parents were killed by a drunk driver, he fended off the advances of a travelling salesman, and he routinely blamed others for his problems."

in 2007, Bell and his colleagues at Cheapies had noticed Hope was no longer popping by for his routine visits. Bell sent a curious text but got no response. A friend came into the shop a few weeks later and informed the crew of Hope's untimely death. Word didn't get back to his family until five years later.

Hope was buried anonymously in a location that remains private. Daubs notes that the family is finalizing the details on a gravestone, with an epitaph that will reportedly read: "In loving memory of Philip Neil Hope — Wheels — September 24 1972 to November 2007."

As Daubs so eloquently states, "in death, Hope will have the permanence that proved elusive in life."