R.I.P.: Anton Yelchin has passed away at age 27

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

The internet is constantly being flooded with fake news, so often my first reaction when I see a headline claiming that something terrible has happened to a celebrity is, "That has to be a hoax." Often it is. But sometimes I see that the source for the news is a trustworthy site, and the world crumbles a bit. That's what happened yesterday, when I heard that 27-year-old actor Anton Yelchin had died under tragic circumstances, taken way too soon by a freak accident.

As you may have heard already, Yelchin was killed when his own car, which had been left in neutral, rolled down his steep driveway and pinned him against a security fence. It's unthinkable. There has been some speculation that Yelchin's car may have been of a model that was recently recalled due to issues with the gear shift and drivers not realizing they had left it in neutral instead of park.

Yelchin was a major talent with a very promising future. In sixteen years, he had already accrued sixty-five credits, among them the dramas ALPHA DOG and CHARLIE BARTLETT, high profile films like TERMINATOR: SALVATION and the STAR TREK reboot, and several genre films – the FRIGHT NIGHT remake, the Stephen King adaptation HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, the Dean Koontz adaptation ODD THOMAS, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, BURYING THE EX, GREEN ROOM.

The outpouring of love and respect for Yelchin from the people who knew him and worked with him has been overwhelming. By all accounts, Yelchin was a very nice and incredibly cool person. Nicolas Cage called him the kindest person he ever worked with, and you know Cage has worked with a whole lot of people.

Yelchin was one of most interesting actors of his generation, and I was intrigued to watch him continue to work and grow for many years to come. He leaves behind a very solid career, but it's one that should have lasted several decades longer. 

It was just announced last week that Yelchin would be providing the voice of the lead character in Guillermo del Toro's animated Netflix series Trollhunters. It's not clear if Yelchin had completed his work on the show, but given that del Toro has said that he and Yelchin had been working together for a year, there is hope that we'll be able to include Trollhunters as part of his legacy.

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