Anton Yelchin

Anton Yelchin
Biographical information
Name at Birth	Антон Викторович Ельчин
Gender	Male
Date of Birth	March 11, 1989
Date of Death	June 19, 2016
Age	27 (Deceased)
Height	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Nationality	Russia
Origin	Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Professional Information
Occupation(s)	Actor
Years Active	2000–2016

Anton Viktorovich Yelchin (Russian: Анто́н Ви́кторович Ельчи́н; March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016) was an American film and television actor, known for portraying Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot series, Jacob Helm in Like Crazy, Jim Lake Jr. in Trollhunters, and several other prominent roles.

He voiced Jim Lake Jr. in Trollhunters Parts 1-3, until he is replaced by Emile Hirsch, who voices Jim for the rest of the Tales of Arcadia trilogy.

Early Life

Anton Yelchin was born on March 11, 1989, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) to Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, pair figure skaters who were stars of the Leningrad Ice Ballet for 15 years. Due to the family's history of religious and political oppression (as they were Jewish), Yelchin's family fled to the United States when Anton was six months old.

Career

He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles and the Hollywood films Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis (both 2001). His role as Jacob Clarke in the Steven Spielberg miniseries Taken was significant in furthering his career as a child actor. He later appeared on the television series Huff and appeared in the films Alpha Dog (2007), Terminator Salvation (2009), Charlie Bartlett (2007), Fright Night (2011), The Smurfs (2011), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) and Green Room (2015). He has appeared in Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and posthumously-released Star Trek Beyond (2016) and Thoroughbreds (2017).

Death

Early in the morning of June 19, 2016, Yelchin was found by friends pinned between his Jeep Grand Cherokee and a brick pillar outside his home in Studio City, California, in what was described as a "freak accident". As Yelchin got out of his car to presumably check his mail, the vehicle (which Yelchin believed he had put into park, when it was in fact in neutral) apparently rolled back down his driveway, which was on a steep incline, and trapped him against the pillar and a security fence. He was pronounced dead later that day at the age of 27 from blunt trauma asphyxia.

A recall was issued for the 2014 and 2015 models of the Grand Cherokee for issues with the gearshift design that could make it difficult for the driver to determine whether the vehicle was in park or still in gear.

Legacy

Since his death, it was revealed in 2017 that Yelchin was born with the terminal chronical medical illness cystic fibrosis (CF). In conjunction with this revelation, The Anton Yelchin Foundation was founded, whose mission is "... to empower and support young people engaged in creative arts who face career challenges due to debilitating disease or disability." On the year of its founding, the Foundation donated $1 million to the University of Southern California's adult cystic fibrosis center at Keck Hospital, which has since been renamed the Anton Yelchin Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Keck Hospital of USC. Most recently, the documentary film Love, Antosha was released in August 2019, which focuses on Yelchin's life, personal relationships, and his secretive struggle against cystic fibrosis.

Filmography

• Hearts in Atlantis - Bobby Garfield (2001)
• Star Trek - Pavel Chekov (2009)
• Green Room - Pat (2015)
• Like Crazy - Jacob Helm (2011)

Trivia

• Trollhunters was Yelchin's second project working alongside Charlie Saxton. The two voiced the characters of Shun Kazama and Shirō Mizunuma, respectively, in the English-dub of From Up on Poppy Hill.
• Emile Hirsch, one of Anton's closest friends, has been cast to replace Anton Yelchin as Jim Lake Jr. for Part Three of Trollhunters, and the remainder of the Tales of Arcadia franchise.
• According to one of the show's writers, Aaron Waltke (on his twitter account), Anton's two favorite episodes in Trollhunters were "Young Atlas" and "Hero with a Thousand Faces".

External Links

• IMDB