Tragic news broke in the entertainment world on Sunday, as an up-and-coming star of the silver screen reportedly lost his life at a terribly young age.
According to the Associated Press, publicist Jennifer Allen has confirmed that Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died in a traffic accident on Sunday morning. He was only 27 years old.
Yelchin was born in the Soviet Union in 1989 to Russian parents, who reportedly emigrated to the United States as a baby. Though his first feature film role was back when he was still a child, in 2000’s A Man Is Mostly Water, his career in major motion pictures had taken off in recent years.
His highest profile role was undoubtedly that of Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot franchise. He portrayed the wunderkind navigator in all three of the latests films: Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and the upcoming Star Trek Beyond, which is due out next month.
You might have recognized Yelchin’s voice from some of his work in animated films like The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2, and From Up on Poppy Hill, and his face from some of his early live-action work in films like Alpha Dog and Terminator Salvation.
According to the entertainment news website TMZ, Yelchin was discovered by friends after failing to show up for a scheduled rehearsal. He was reportedly pinned between his mailbox and his own car outside his home in the San Fernando valley with the engine of his car still running. How and why this happened remains unclear, although TMZ reports that law enforcement does not suspect foul play.
H/T Associated Press
