Tommaso Boddi/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Actor Anton Yelchin, who played the role of Ensign Pavel Chekhov in the recent Star Trek movies, was killed in a traffic accident in Los Angeles early Sunday, ABC News has confirmed. He was 27 years old.
Yelchin’s rep provided no details of the circumstances of the accident. However, the Los Angeles Police Department reports the actor was supposed to meet friends for a rehearsal and when he didn’t appear, they visited his home out of concern and found him dead around 1:10 a.m. pinned between his running vehicle and a brick mailbox in the driveway of his Los Angeles-area home.
Because the vehicle was in neutral and the driveway steep, police believe the vehicle rolled backward and struck Yelchin, killing him. Police reportedly don’t suspect foul play, nor do they know why he exited his vehicle.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Yelchin and his parents moved to the U.S. when he was six months old. He first came to wide notice as an actor when he starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 2001 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Hearts in Atlantis. He appeared in dozens of film since, but none more high-profile than the rebooted Star Trek franchise, the first of which premiered in 2009, and the most recent — Star Trek Beyond — scheduled to open July 22.
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