A New York University sophomore died on Wednesday a short time after he complained to students about feeling ill and was rushed to the hospital.

Although the circumstances behind Spenser Kimbrough’s death aren’t clear, that the tragedy happened days before the beginning of the fall semester is unfortunate for a school eager to move beyond the series of student deaths last year.

When Kimbrough, a theater student from Staten Island enrolled in the Tisch School of the Arts, told people in his Lafayette Street dormitory to call 911 early Wednesday morning, students in his hall assumed he was seeking help for another person.

“I saw him freaking out. He said he needed to call 911,” said a sophomore named David who didn’t want his last name published. “It looked like something was wrong with someone else, not him.”

An NYU spokesman, John Beckman, said the student was conscious when he was transported to NYU Downtown Hospital, where he died “sometime later.”

Students described Kimbrough, 19, who was enrolled in the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, as a promising actor who liked to take on charismatic roles.

“He definitely had a good future ahead of him,” said sophomore A.J. Allegra, who studied with him. “He liked to play kind of jagged characters …feisty people.”

The dean of the Tisch School of the Arts, Mary Schmidt Campbell, said in an e-mail to students, “Spenser was an irrepressible presence in the Drama Department…. We will all miss his gentle, good humor, his rich, sonorous voice, and his commitment to his craft.”

Eugene Michael Santiago, a sophomore, said Kimbrough didn’t “do drugs or alcohol” and was a “happy kid.”

Kimbrough’s death is the fifth NYU undergraduate fatality in less than a year. Two male students died last year jumping off a balcony inside the Bobst Library, which prompted the school to install transparent barriers along the balcony walkways.

A short time later, a female student fell to her death from an apartment building window near Washington Square Park, and in March, a female student jumped from a Midtown building and died.

Starting this academic year, partly in reaction to the rash of student deaths, NYU has introduced what it is calling expanded health and counseling programs, all part of its new “Wellness Exchange.”

Kimbrough lived in a large off-campus dormitory filled mostly with sophomore students.

Sophomore Nick Agrawal said the dormitory, called Lafayette Street Residence Hall, has a reputation among students as a place where “people stay in and party.”

Students interviewed at the dormitory yesterday said they didn’t know the cause of Kimbrough’s death. Few said they were shaken by it, and one student, Matthew Sullivan, expressed concern that it would hurt the school’s reputation.

NYU placed leaflets around the dormitory, informing students that a student had died and listing counseling services.