Dave Hollis passed away at his home in Texas after leaving his position as a Disney executive to assist his wife in managing a prosperous lifestyle company. He was 47.
According to Hays County Justice of the Peace Andrew Cable, Hollis was pronounced dead on Sunday afternoon at his home in Dripping Springs, a town outside of Austin, where his ex-wife Rachel Hollis published the best-selling book “Girl, Wash Your Face.”
An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death since Hollis, who was last seen the evening before, was “youthful and didn’t have a long medical history,” Cable said.
While the family struggles to “navigate through the unspeakable,” Rachel Hollis pleaded for prayers in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
When Dave Hollis left Disney in 2018 to work for his wife’s business, he had spent 17 years there, including seven years as the company’s chief of distribution. The parents of four relocated from Los Angeles to the Austin region, worked together on podcasts, livestreams, and conferences that celebrated life. Their “Rise Together” podcast has a marriage-related theme.
In 2020, Rachel Hollis posted on Instagram that they were divorcing after working “endlessly” for three years to make it work. She said they came to the decision that “it is healthier and more respectful for us to choose this as the end of our journey as a married couple” after working “endlessly” to make their marriage work.
“We are devastated,” she wrote. “I have no words and my heart is too broken.”
Hollis managed the launching of blockbusters including “Black Panther” and “Star Wars” movies while he was employed for Disney. In 2018, he admitted to being in a corporate rut and joining his wife’s business to The Associated Press. His new existence seemed “like a calling,” he claimed.
Hollis also published books about motivation. He wrote “Built Through Courage: Face Your Fears to Live the Life You Were Intended For” in 2021 and “Get Out of Your Own Way: A Skeptic’s Guide to Development and Satisfaction” in 2020.
