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J.J. Abrams Reacts To Death of Star Trek Actor Anton 'Chekov' Yelchin (hollywoodreporter.com)
On Sunday morning 27-year-old actor Anton Yelchin, who plays Chekov in the new Star Trek movies, was killed in a freak accident with his own car in the driveway of his home in Studio City. "It appears he momentarily exited his car and it rolled backward, causing trauma that led to his death," a police spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter. This afternoon J. J. Abrams tweeted a picture of a handwritten eulogy addressed to Anton. "You were brilliant. You were kind. You were funny as hell, and supremely talented. And you weren't here nearly long enough. Missing you..." Zachary Quinto, who plays Mr. Spock, also tweeted a link to a picture posted in memorial on Instagram, where he called Yelchin "one of the most open and intellectually curious people I have ever had the pleasure to know... wise beyond his years, and gone before his time..."
Stephen King called him a "crazily talented actor gone too soon," remembering Yelchin from one of his last roles in a 10-episode adaptation of King's "Mr. Mercedes". Yelchin will play a mentally deranged ice cream truck driver who's also an IT worker for a Geek Squad-like company named "Cyber Patrol".
Stephen King called him a "crazily talented actor gone too soon," remembering Yelchin from one of his last roles in a 10-episode adaptation of King's "Mr. Mercedes". Yelchin will play a mentally deranged ice cream truck driver who's also an IT worker for a Geek Squad-like company named "Cyber Patrol".
He visited a movie set I was working on just before Star Trek came out. I have it filed away in my list of 'really cool shit that happened in my life'. What stands out for me in that memory isn't that I got to meet Pavel Chekov and Kyle Reese, it's that he was a really cool guy. Oh, and as a bonus, he was impressed with what we were doing. I enjoyed calling my parents that weekend and telling them about it.
Farewell Anton, thanks for being a really cool guy.
Yes it is a bit dark as humour goes but you have to wonder as it was the first thing that popped into me head when I read how he got killed.
For what it's worth, the reports say that the car was a recent model Jeep Cherokee. Recent Chryslers vehicles have an incredibly stupid automatic shifter.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a28121/nhtsa-investigates-jeep-dodge-chrysler-shifters/
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/02/09/2033249/jeepchryslers-new-gearshift-appears-to-be-causing-accidents
It's entirely a drive-by-wire shifter that acts more like a joystick, and what you do is that you essentially dial in the gear you want, at which point it always goes back to its default position. So people are having a heck of a time telling when it's in Park, because if they didn't dial it correctly, they'll get Neural instead.
Mr. Yelchin may very well have been the latest person to discover this the unfortunate way; there were already 30 injury reports back in February.