JCC Anton Yelchin (Chekov in new Trek) dead in car crash

Anton Yelchin was a fantastic actor. Didn't have many lead roles (aside from the watch it right now Green Room and there's also Charlie Bartlett) but he was always gold. There's a lot going on in his face when you watch his work. And for geek cred he was Kyle Reese and freaking Chekov! Damn shame won't see any more.

 

http://trekmovie.com/2016/06/21/star-trek-beyond-will-be-dedicated-to-anton-yelchin/

That's good to know.

 

I hate that I didn't get on here yesterday to post something. I literally gasped when I saw the headline pop up in my newsfeed. He was never one of my favorite actors. He didn't have the largest range, but there was a particular type of role that he was essentially the ideal casting for. He was generally solid in supporting roles and I think it's kind of especially tragic that this happened just when he was starting to get lead roles and, in Green Room, had given what I personally considered to be a genuinely great performance, his first from where I was sitting.

I'd say probably the best movie he was in would be Jarmusch's moody vampire deconstruction Only Lovers Left Alive. It's a supporting role, but he's very good. He plays a young "rock & roll kid" that works with Tom Hiddleston's vampire musician; he falls under the sway of Mia Wasikowska, who plays Tilda Swinton's younger sister in the movie. It's a great cast, a strange, arresting movie and he's very good in it.



His best performance, as I mentioned above was his most recent film, Green Room, where he plays the awkward bass player in a punk band that's battling Nazis (just . . . just go see it . . . it'll make sense then). It's an ensemble piece, but he's the main character and he really owns the role. He's the antithesis of the action hero; he's pretty inept, he cowers, he weeps, he whimpers . . . and then he decides he's simply not going to die tonight. And he finds a real brokenness toward the end of the film; you know that even if he manages to survive, he'll never be the same. He'll just never be the ******* same.



So, those are my recommendations for those not familiar with his work or those who want a nice double feature to remember him by.

And, you know, the new Star Trek movies have been fun. No, really, they have. I stand by that.

Anyway, this one's particularly sad because I definitely came out of Green Room as interested in him as an actor as I'd ever been. I definitely felt at the time that his best work was ahead of him. He was getting better roles and giving better performances and that looked to continue on into the future. I think he might have been a genuinely brilliant actor in five to ten years or so. Now I guess we'll never know. Of course, as far as his friends and family are concerned, this is hardly the worst or most painful thing about his death. Thoughts and prayers for them and a tip of the hat to a good actor well on his way to being a great one.

 

His extensive body of work and wide ranging appeal justify its own thread like similarly seminal artists Prince and Bowie had.

 

I agree that all these people are basically in the same category.

 

Yeah his stuff in the last few minutes of Green Room is fantastic where the guy is just clearly completely emotionally deadened by the brutality of the experience. Heck, even in Terminator: Salvation he has this one part as Kyle Reese where they're being shipped off to Skynet and people are freaking out and he just tries to get everyone to calm down (I like him as Reese because he has to basically do what Biehn did which is show this guy can keep on fighting). I thought he was great at showing a reserve of inner strength in his characters who could put up with more than one would expect at first glance.

 

If you didn't have your own thread when you were alive...

 

Meanwhile, other people are not so afraid.

 

R.I.P.

 

For me it's the kid from Scifi's Taken or Ally's grandfather when speaking with other people...


I loved him since then....Still shocked over the news.

 

I suppose we should have RIP thread for the Calvin Harris/Taytay relationship, as it arguably had as far if not farther a reach culturally than Chekov?

 

Oh, come on, there's no reason to be a crank about it. If you're seriously into modern film, you know who the guy was and respected him as an artist. This is like when you didn't know who Merle Haggard was. You're not the final arbiter on who is an artist and who isn't. He's been in a lot of significant and interesting movies, unless all you do is see the tentpoles. Though I always forget he was in Terminator: Salvation. Not the best memorial, that one. And he was also apparently in Experimenter, the movie about Stanley Milgram. I . . . do not remember that. But that movie was hard to focus on.

EDIT: Oh, jeez, no wonder I didn't recognize him. This is him in Experimenter:

 

I knew who Merle Haggard was, the point was he didn't matter.

Actual significant artists pass and go in the dead celebs thread.

Guy in schlocky Star Trek gets killed because he made the error of buying an American car? I'm surprised there's no forum for him, a thread cannot encapsulate the loss adequately enough!

I mean we didn't even have a thread for Peter O'Toole, and unlike Yelchin O'Toole will be remembered years from now.

you know, like other dead actors including Brittany Murphy aren't?

 

Is now when VLM reminds us that Peter O'Toole is, in fact, still dead?

 

Okay, well, we'll agree to disagree on Haggard; he was a great artist - he mattered.

And I will just again argue with the characterization of Yelchin as "guy in schlocky Star Trek." But your point is taken about artists just going into the Dead Celebs thread. I get it; fine. But I don't know why you have to be a **** about it. I mean, it's a thread; maybe the guy should just go in the dead celebs thread. Fine. But it seems ungracious to come in with a ton of sarcasm and mock both the person that's died and the people who care. I mean, that's just bad taste. Ignore the thread; it'll sink; and you don't have to be the guy who acted like a ****. Well, okay, I think you probably do have to be that guy, but maybe just do it in one less thread.

*And what's this about Brittany Murphy? Clueless lives forever, you heathen.

EDIT: Also dead: Plenty O'Toole.

 

He's like this in every thread so why the surprise?

 

Bu hoo, how come people I care about don't get their own thread? How come people care about this guy I didn't know existed? It's unfair! Why do people care about him? Why don't they care about the guys I like? People sure are stupid!

Edit - Removed. Really?

 

It's always amusing to watch people get into arguments with posters I've blocked years ago.

 

I just watched Charlie Bartlett yesterday, for a guy who had a hellova lot of supporting roles, Yelchin is title character in this one from 2007



Hellova cast, Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr, Hope Davis and Kat Dennings. Downey is actually really subdued, or more accurately a slow burn until one final scene where he goes full quirky Downey. But the guy who gets to do the most stuff is Yelchin in a downright exuberant (and how kind of heartbreaking) lead performance. The first scene of the movie is him being cheering by an adoring crowd and he snaps out of the fantasy and it's sad on a lot of levels watching it now. But this is a really fun movie and Yelchin just nails it playing a sort of Ferris Buller style high schooler who, he's dimissed as a prep school dweeb on the first day in public school but slowly gets everyone on his side. The movie isn't particularly subtle, it's really broad and loud at times, but it's very entertaining and anytime you can get multiple scenes that have Kat Dennings, Downey and Yelchin it, it's worth a watch. Great viewing for anyone who wants to see what this guy could do, especially one of the few times we get to see him headline a flick.

 

I know he existed, and in two years time we may all collectively remember he mattered.

Honestly though, a guy who people literally only know as Chekov was crushed under the weight of his own poor choices in vehicles and people are suddenly pretending he was their MOST HIGHEST RATED UP AND COMING FAVOURITEST EVER.

For sure, though, be angry at me that you're transparently full of **** guys.

And BigAl, congrats for using the weakness blanket tiger.

 

He was also Bobby in Hearts in Atlantis.

Which I didn't know until he died. Because he was largely inconsequential in the acting world.


Wanna **** with Big Fail in here, Ender Sai?

 

And risk some sort of folksy language being used without a hint of irony?

Heavens no.

 

I would be silly to be angry over this. Your ranting was annoying, however, because it was rather petulant, which is ironic as it's a descriptor you're fond of using.