Joe Spinell died in his apartment located off of Greenpoint Avenue in Sunnyside, Queens, New York on January 13, 1989 at the age of 52. Sometime during that morning, he cut himself badly on his glass shower stall door after apparently slipping in his bathtub while showering and soon afterward fell asleep on his couch instead of calling for help, his hemophilia causing him to bleed to death. 
His body was found by his friend Sal Sirchia. Sirchia had phoned Spinell that morning and was told of the injury and his refusal of treatment. Sirchia became concerned when he tried calling Spinell from his workplace at around noon and there was no answer. In the late afternoon, Sirchia left work at the end of his shift and drove to Spinell’s apartment. After no one answered the front door, Sirchia called the building superintendent, who entered Spinell’s apartment, where they both found Spinell dead on his living room couch. Wearing only a bathrobe, Spinell bled to death over part of the couch from an apparent deep cut on the back of his head. Spinell was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens near his home.
