`JEANNIE' STAR'S SON DIED OF OVERDOSE.

Byline: Karen Rubin Staff Writer

COVINA - A toxicology report Monday said ``acute heroin/morphine intoxication'' killed the bodybuilder son of actors Barbara Eden and Michael Ansara and that a syringe was found in the truck where he died.

Pathologists found no puncture wounds on the body of 35-year-old Matthew Michael Ansara, said spokesman Scott Carrier of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.

But when the bodybuilder and actor pulled his Toyota pickup truck into a Monrovia gas station on June 25 he died within minutes, experts said, the drug forcing him quickly into unconsciousness and then shutting down his body's ability to breathe.

``It hits you like a hammer. If you get an overdose of heroin and it's acute, bam. Lights out,'' said Dr. Kenneth Frankel, a pathologist and director of the medical laboratory at Citrus Valley Medical Center, Intercommunity Hospital campus.

``Heroin/morphine'' terminology was used, Carrier said, because the body metabolizes heroin like morphine. The same body enzymes are used to break down the drug.

An uncapped syringe and an open bottle of rubbing alcohol were found on the passenger seat of the truck, Carrier said.

Ansara was found dead about 9 p.m. in his truck at a Chevron station in the 1500 block of Myrtle Avenue, just off the Foothill Freeway.

He was found slumped over the steering wheel, in the gas station parking lot, and ``he could have been dead for an hour or two hours,'' Monrovia police Detective John Abbott said.

Ansara had a history of drug addiction. He used pharmaceutical-grade narcotics, like morphine, according to close friends who worked with him.

``He had used, and it was well-known,'' said David Lonigro, a trainer at World Gym in West Covina. ``He had been in rehab. We thought he had his life in order.''

``It does not make sense to me,'' Lonigro said. ``He was really into his body.''

Ansara checked himself into a Tarzana-based rehabilitation center for treatment and had been drug-free about a year, said Amy Buttons, the daughter of comedian Red Buttons, who worked with him as a counselor.

At 6 feet 3 inches and 280 pounds, Ansara was a bear of a man who was training regularly to compete in the upcoming Mr. Los Angeles bodybuilding contest. To gain bulk and definition, he worked out three hours a day, five to seven days a week, and also followed a low-carbohydrate diet.

Ansara was also getting acting parts in movies but was frustrated that he was always cast as the bad guy.

His friends described him as a thinker, one who explored topics as wide- ranging as the history of the Roman Empire to the physics of the universe.

Ansara was Eden's only child. She is perhaps best known for her role opposite Larry Hagman on ``I Dream of Jeannie.'' Eden and her former husband Michael Ansara, who played Cochise on the old TV series ``Broken Arrow,'' met while both were under contract to Fox.