A beautiful soul with an ‘unstoppable passion for life’
Actor’s death after his car rolled into him declared an accident by coroner
LOS ANGELES— Anton Yelchin, a rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the new Star Trek films, was remembered by those who worked with him as brilliant and kind, and “a rare and beautiful soul.”
Los Angeles police were investigating the death of the 27-year-old, which the Los Angeles coroner’s office ruled an accident Monday.
Coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter said Yelchin died of blunt force asphyxia after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee pinned him between a mailbox and a security pillar in his driveway early Sunday.
That model of SUV was part of a global recall of 1.1 million vehicles announced by Fiat Chrysler in April, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records show.
Drivers complained they had trouble telling if they had put the automatic transmissions in park. If they were not in park and a driver left the vehicle, it could roll away.
Investigators were looking into the position of Yelchin’s gear shift at the time of the accident, police spokesman Jane Kim said. The actor had gotten out of the vehicle momentari- ly, but police didn’t say why he was behind it when it started rolling.
The freak accident cut short the promising career of an actor whom audiences were still getting to know, with great artistic ambition. Star Trek Beyond, the third film in the rebooted series, comes out in July.
Director J.J. Abrams, who cast Yelchin in the franchise, wrote in a statement that he was “brilliant . . . kind . . . funny as hell and supremely talented.”
His death was felt throughout the industry.
“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 co-starred in Foster’s 2011 film The Beaver.
“He was a ferocious movie buff who put us all to shame,” said Gabe Klinger, who directed Yelchin in the upcoming film Porto, likely to be released this fall. “He was watching four or five movies every night.”
Yelchin began acting as a child, taking small roles in independent films and various television shows, such as ER, The Practice and Curb Your Enthusiasm. His breakout big-screen role came opposite Anthony Hopkins in 2001’s Hearts in Atlantis.
He transitioned into teen roles in films such as the crime thriller Alpha Dogand the comedy Charlie Bartlett. He also played a young Kyle Reese in 2009’s Terminator Salvation.
Yelchin, an only child, was born in Russia. His parents were professional figure skaters who moved the family to the United States when Yelchin was a baby. He briefly flirted with skating lessons, too, before discovering that he wasn’t very skilled on the ice. That led him to acting class.
“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.
The discipline that Yelchin learned from his athlete parents translated into his work as an actor, which he treated with seriousness and professionalism, said Klinger.
“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 Associated Press in 2011. “There are a lot of people who can’t, who can only do one or the other.”
Yelchin seemed to fit in anywhere in Hollywood.
He could do big sci-fi franchises and vocal work in The Smurfs while also appearing in more eccentric and artier fare, like Jim Jarmusch’s vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive and Jeremy Saulnier’s horror thriller Green Room, a cult favourite that came out earlier this year.
Klinger said that for Yelchin, every film was an opportunity to learn and study more. He got to work with one of his acting heroes, Willem Dafoe, on the film Odd Thomas.
“He used to refer to Willem as an artist, not an actor,” Klinger said. “That’s the kind of actor he aspired to be, where people didn’t regard him as an actor, they regarded him as an artist.”