GONE IN A FLASH
Child actor Logan Williams died suddenly at age 16. Now, his mother reveals his tragic secret battle with opioids
WHEN “The Flash” actor Logan Williams died suddenly April 2 at 16 years old, he was mourned by many who never knew his cause of death.
Now, in an exclusive interview with The Post, his mother, Marlyse Williams, reveals that preliminary toxicology results show Logan died of a fentanyl overdose, following a three-year battle with addiction.
After years of dealing with her son’s devastating secret, Marlyse says she’s determined to bring awareness to the opioid epidemic.
“His death is not going to be in vain,” she says of her blue-eyed son, who would have turned 17 on April 9. “He’s going to help a lot of people down the road.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 67,367 people died of opioid overdoses in 2018, the most recent stats released. And the mortality rate among teens continues to rise.
Marlyse, a sales rep for a dental company, recalls Logan’s first taste of Hollywood. When he was about 9, they were stopped in a Vancouver, British Columbia, mall by a casting agent in town from LA.
“She said he could easily become an actor,” Marlyse recalls. “That resonated with Logan, and a few days later he kept saying, ‘I think I could be an actor.’ I tried to really talk him out of it . . . ‘It’s so competitive. It means you have to learn lines and be on time and such.’ And he said, ‘I know I can! I can do it!’ ”
Marlyse was skeptical. “I thought this little obsession would end soon and he’ll move onto something else, like kids often do,” she says.
But she secured a Vancouver-based agent for him, who sent the boy on his first audition for a TV movie. Logan landed the gig.
“We were completely shocked because it was all new to us and we didn’t know what to expect,” Marlyse says. Between ages 10 and 12, Logan auditioned for hundreds of parts. Over the next few years, he juggled school work with roles in the Hallmark series “When Calls the Heart,” the ABC sci-fi series “The Whispers” and the longtime CW hit “Supernatural.”
His most notable role, though, was playing Barry Allen in the first two seasons of “The Flash.”
His co-star, Grant Gustin, who played the adult title character to Logan’s young version of Barry, called the news of Logan’s death “devastating” in an Instagram post read by more than a million people.
“He really, really enjoyed the acting,” his mom
I did everything but handcuff him to me to try to keep him safe.” — Marlyse Williams on protecting her son Logan (here at 5 months old) from his addiction
says. “I know there’s a stigma of child stars, but he was not a star. He was up and coming.”
But eventually so much auditioning became “way too stressful,” and Logan took a break. It was around that time, when he was 13, that Marlyse discovered her son was using marijuana, and from there he escalated to other drugs, though she doesn’t know for sure when he started using fentanyl. However, as his addiction progressed, he “was in complete denial because he was so ashamed,” she says.
Over the next three years, she tried to help Logan beat his addiction. That included remortgaging her home to send him to an expensive treatment center in the US and, just last summer, sending him to a British Columbia facility for one month. Since then, he had been living in a group home.
“I did everything humanly possible — everything a mother could do,” she says. “I did everything but handcuff him to me to try to keep him safe.”
She also worked to keep his addiction “under wraps” from most people, including those in the entertainment industry.
“Logan was always hoping to get back into acting, music or whatever future he wanted,” she says, adding that he went on several auditions last fall. “We didn’t want people to know because of the judgment, because of the embarrassment, because of the criticism. We wanted it to go away.”
Marlyse last saw her son March 30. They cooked his favorite meal: filet mignon with truffled garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli, and shared an “amazing” evening eating, playing rummy and talking.
“He said to me, ‘Mom, I’m gonna get clean. I’m going to get better. And I want my new life to start.’ I just know the last thing we said to each other was, ‘I love you,’ ” she says.
Four days later — on April 3 — she was in a funeral home, identifying his body.
“Seeing him like that was as gut-wrenching as hearing that he died. It was horrific. Horrific. He was cold,” she says. “But I have to say, I feel like he was restless and he needed me to tell him it’s OK to let go and that the pain is over and he doesn’t have to hurt anymore.”
That night she went outside to walk their dog, Chico.
“There was the brightest moon shining down on me and I swear that was Logan’s spirit, letting me know he had transitioned. I really felt his energy, that he had transitioned. I just hope he’s at peace,” she says through tears. “He was in so much pain and he was so ashamed.”
On Mother’s Day, she was greeted by a knock on the door: Four friends of Logan’s had brought her flowers. “They said, ‘We brought you the expensive ones and our moms the cheap ones . . . Logan had such good taste and loved you.’ ”
All of them, she added, had “fresh” tattoos that read “RIP Logan.”
Last week she was also reminded of Logan when singer Melissa Etheridge announced that her 21-year-old son, Beckett, had also died of an opioid overdose.
“My heart breaks for her because I know the initial devastation of knowing your beautiful boy is gone,” she says. “We are in this horrible club. A club you don’t want to be a member of.”
Marlyse says she wants Logan’s legacy to live on after his death, even if she can only “create awareness or help one or five or 100 people to somehow heal and get help.”
Until then, she has a constant reminder of that unfortunate role: She keeps her son’s ashes in a handcrafted stone urn, surrounded by photos of him, on a table in her living room.
“Every night I put a candle by the window. I just want Logan to know that he’s always welcome to come back home,” she says. “Sounds so silly, but when he was alive I’d always leave the light on [for] if he’d come home. I leave the light on so he knows I’m here for him.”