Sage Stallone’s death was “absolutely not suicide”.

The 36-year-old son of actor Sylvester Stallone was found dead on July 13 and despite there being no formal cause of death yet, his close friend Stephen Wozniak claims Sage harboured no desire to end his life on purpose.

He said: “I spoke to him a few weeks ago. We talked about resurrecting a film we worked on, other projects, talked about his girlfriend and time they’d spent together. We talked about my wedding and he seemed to be thinking about it.

“It was absolutely not suicide. I’m certain that this really horrible thing that happened was an accident. It could have been anything – but nothing like suicide. I knew him pretty well.”

However, he does believe Sage – whose mother was Sylvester’s first wife Sasha Czack – would often become depressed, but did not turn to drink or recreational drugs to deal with his problems.

He added to E! News: “He would have withdrawal and get depressed.

“He would try to overcompensate. He would try to clown around and I know that those are things people do, medicate or wake up. He was no different. Very few people were telling him, ‘Don’t do that.’ I did. He was very resistant when you would tell him that. It was a sore point with him.”

Sasha recently blamed dental surgery Sage had – and consequent painkiller use – for causing his untimely demise.

She said: “I told him not to do that. I’ve heard about people dying after having multiple procedures done to your mouth. Do not have more than one tooth [pulled].”

When asked if he was taking painkillers for it, she answered: “Wouldn’t you be?”