Twenty-seven-year-old Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the rebooted films, died in a freak car accident last Sunday morning outside of his home in Los Angeles.
At around 1:10 a.m. last Sunday, Yelchin stepped out of his car, which was parked in the driveway of his home in Studio City, a small neighborhood in Los Angeles. His car skidded backward, pinning him against a security fence and a brick pillar.
The trauma Yelchin endured resulted in his death, said Jennifer Houser from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Houser said that Yelchin was found dead by his friends who came to his house when he didn't show up for a scheduled rehearsal.
It seemed that the actor stepped out of the car for a while and left it in the driveway, added Houser. When the car rolled backward, Yelchin was directly behind it.
The friends who found the actor on the scene of the accident immediately notified Yelchin's family. Houser added that she didn't know if the vehicle was running when Yelchin was found by his friends.
Investigators from the coroner's office in Los Angeles concluded that Yelchin's death was an accident and that the actor died of blunt traumatic asphyxia, said Lt. Larry Dietz.
Dietz said that it seemed the Star Trek actor did not properly put his car in park mode. Investigator Selena Barros added that they found "no obvious suspicious circumstances involved."
Publicist Jennifer Allen confirmed the actor's death, adding that the Yelchin family asked for privacy.
Gone Too Soon
Born in Russia on March 11, 1989, Yelchin was the only child of Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, celebrity skaters of the former Soviet Union. When Yelchin was only six months old, the couple flew to the United States and started a new life in Los Angeles.
Before becoming an actor, Yelchin tried to follow in his parents' footsteps on the ice. After finding out that he wasn't very skilled in ice skating, he moved on to acting.
"I loved the improvisation part of it the most, because it was a lot like just playing around with stuff. There was something about it that I just felt completely comfortable doing and happy doing," Yelchin said in a 2011 promotional interview for the movie Like Crazy, where he starred with Felicity Jones.
He also starred in the teen comedy flick Charlie Bartlett and the crime thriller film Alpha Dog. Yelchin played Pavel Andreievich Chekov, a fictional character in the rebooted Star Trek movies, which was his biggest acting role.
