Paul Walker, best known for brilliantly playing the Keanu role in the 2001 car-based remake of Point Break, The Fast and the Furious, has dead at the age of 40, according to reports. According to his official Facebook page, Walker was the passenger in a car that crashed in Santa Clarita, California, killing both Walker and the driver.
It is with a truly heavy heart that we must confirm that Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident while attending a charity event for his organization Reach Out Worldwide. He was a passenger in a friend’s car, in which both lost their lives. [Facebook]
The accident happened in Santa Clarita — north of Los Angeles — and according to multiple sources connected to Paul … the actor was in a Porsche when the driver somehow lost control and slammed into a post or a tree … and then the car burst into flames. [TMZ]
From what I can tell, the seventh Fast and Furious movie was still shooting when this happened (they were still casting a walk-on role as a promotion as of last week). But let’s go ahead and mourn the guy first before we start talking about what his death means to the franchise. Being killed in a car crash when you’re not even driving seems so much more sad than being the driver for some reason (I guess because we subconsciously try to assign “blame” any time someone dies, even if, rationally, we know it’s bullshit, and that any of us could bite it at any second.). Not that it wouldn’t be sad regardless.
Anyway, I won’t pretend Paul Walker was my favorite actor, but I still remember his MTV cribs episode from a few years back, after he was famous from Fast/Furious, but he was still living in his crappy, surfer dude Winnebago. He seemed like a pretty genuine, non-douchebag. RIP.