TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN paid to young actor Anton Yelchin (27), who died in a tragic accident.
His Star Trek co-stars and fellow actors shared their upset at the loss after the news broke.
Yelchin was killed when his car rolled back on him outside his house.
Los Angeles police said last night that Yelchin’s car pinned him against a brick mailbox pillar and a security fence early yesterday.
He had gotten out of the car momentarily. He had been on his way to meet friends for a rehearsal, and when he didn’t turn up they went to his house, where they found his body.
Yelchin was born in Russia to parents who moved with him to the United States when he was a baby.
He had roles in films such as Like Crazy, Alpha Dog and Charlie Bartlett, but his biggest role had been as Chekhov in the rebooted Star Trek movies. The third film in the franchise, Star Trek Beyond, is released in July.
“What a rare and beautiful soul with his unstoppable passion for life,” Jodie Foster said. “He was equal parts serious thinker and the most fun little brother you could ever dream of.”
Yelchin’s parents were professional figure skaters, and he took skating lessons before discovering it wasn’t the sport for him. He then moved on to acting.
“I loved the improvisation part of it the most, because it was a lot like just playing around with stuff. There was something about it that I just felt completely comfortable doing and happy doing,” Yelchin told The Associated Press in 2011 while promoting the romantic drama Like Crazy. He starred opposite Felicity Jones.
“(My father) still wanted me to apply to college and stuff, and I did,” Yelchin said. “But this [acting] is what I wanted.”
“What’s great about him is he can do anything. He’s a chameleon. He can do bigger movies or smaller, more intimate ones,” Like Crazy director Drake Doremus told the AP in 2011. “There are a lot of people who can’t, who can only do one or the other. … That’s what blows my mind.”
- With reporting from AP
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