Russian Jewish actor Anton Yelchin, who starred in the new “Star Trek” movies, was killed by his own car rolling down the driveway. He was 27.
Friends found Yelchin at his home in Studio City, a suburb of Los Angeles, on June 19 pinned between his jeep and a brick pillar; the vehicle was in neutral and running, TMZ reported.
The 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee that killed him was in the process of being recalled for a problem that may have led to his fatal accident. According to the Associated Press, the jeep was part of a global recall of 1.1 million vehicles announced by Fiat Chrysler in April, following complaints from drivers that a problem with the gear shift made it difficult to tell whether the car was in park.
In a June 20 statement, Fiat Chrysler expressed condolences to Yelchin’s friends and family, but said it was premature to speculate on the cause of his crash.
Yelchin began acting in the late 1990s, when he was a child, appearing in a number of television roles. In 2000, he appeared on an episode of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” playing Cheryl David’s teenage cousin who dresses in a Superman cape and calls himself a magician (and declares in perfect deadpan that Larry is not a magician). “Because you do one trick that makes you a magician?” Larry asks in a very funny sequence.
A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Yelchin moved to the United States when he was an infant. His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were pairs figure skaters who qualified for the 1972 Winter Olympics but were not permitted by Soviet authorities to compete for reasons that are not clear, according to a 1989 article in the Los Angeles Times.
In a 2011 interview with the Daily Beast, Yelchin said, “I don’t exactly know what that was — because they were Jewish or because the KGB didn’t want them to travel.”
Yelchin starred as Chekov in the two latest “Star Trek” movies and will be seen in the third film in the series, “Star Trek Beyond,” set for release next month. A tribute to him was posted on the official Star Trek website.
He also appeared in films including “Like Crazy,” “Alpha Dog,” “Terminator Salvation” and “Fright Night.” — jta