The disgraced pop star and former model Rob Pilatus is reported to have died in a German hotel. Mr Pilatus was part of the Grammy-winning duo Milli Vanilli. But his musical career crashed when it was revealed that the group had only lip-synched songs recorded by session musicians.

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said the body of Pilatus, 32, was discovered in a Frankfurt hotel room with blood around his nose and mouth. Doctors at the scene diagnosed heart failure.

Police were unable to confirm the report. A spokesman said they would be informed of a death only if circumstances had been suspicious.

Milli Vanilli's former manager Frank Farian told the newspaper that Pilatus had just come out of drug rehabilitation and was taking tablets which were dangerous in combination with alcohol.

"From Friday lunchtime on, we called him in his hotel. He didn't pick up the phone. In the end we had to break into his room. But Rob had already been dead for 18 hours.

"I'm totally shocked. Rob looked really good again after his therapy, and was full of optimism," Mr Farian said.

An autopsy was being conducted to determine the exact cause of death, the report said.

Fall from favour

Pilatus and his Milli Vanilli partner, Fabrice Morvan, won the 1989 best new artist Grammy after hits like "Blame it on the Rain" and "Girl, You Know It's True," selling 30 million singles and 14 million albums.

But in late 1990, the performers were stripped of the award after it was revealed that neither actually sang on the Milli Vanilli album.

Pilatus led a troubled life after his disgrace. In 1996, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 180 days at a drug treatment facility in Los Angeles after he pleaded guilty to beating a man with a metal lamp base, assaulting another person and breaking into a parked car.

Pilatus was born in New York to an American father and German mother. He was brought up in Munich by adoptive parents and worked as a model and dancer before joining Morvan in 1988 to form Milli Vanilli.
 

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