“Live as if you were going to die today”: ten actors who died young

The death yesterday, Wednesday, of the French actor Gaspard Ulliel at the age of 37 due to a head injury after a ski accident has shocked the film world.

Ulliel was not only a charismatic actor, winner of two César awards, who in recent times had shunned romantic comedies in search of auteur films, but at the end of March he was going to premiere the new Marvel series,

with Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, with all the paraphernalia that a premiere of this caliber drags and that has become a posthumous work.

Like Ulliel, there have been other stars who have died in the middle of interesting races.

We review some of the most prominent cases.

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Gaspard Ulliel, discreet star of French cinema, dies after a ski accident at the age of 37

Chadwick Boseman.

A colon cancer ended the life of the protagonist of

on August 28, 2020, at the age of 43.

He was at the height of his career, he was one of the most charismatic actors thanks to his participation in the Marvel saga as T'Challa (Black Panther), to the details of companionship that other actors revealed about him and to his work in a cinema more than author;

Now deceased, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting for

Boseman had also embodied several myths of the African-American community on the screen, and seemed called to great works.

Chadwick Boseman

Anton Yechin.

Yelchin was a hard worker until his death on June 19, 2016, at age 27, when his own car pinned him at home against a wall in a fatal accidental hit-and-run.

In addition to playing Chekhov in the new

Yelchin had accumulated more than sixty appearances in film and television, because he started very young, at the age of 10, when he worked on the series

He achieved fame with the Nick Cassavettes film

(2006) and also participated in films such as

or

Anton Yelchin, at the 2014 Venice Film Festival.REUTERS

Paul Walker.

Walker, one of the protagonists of the

died on November 30, 2013 at the age of 40 in, ironies of fate, a traffic accident.

He was co-pilot in his Porsche Carrera GT, which crashed into a pole at about 150 kilometers per hour, on a highway in Santa Clarita, north of Hollywood.

At that time he was filming the seventh installment of the series and his death was one of the first to become a viral phenomenon.

Paul Walker, in a portrait of the month of March 2013. REUTERS

Brittany Murphy.

The death of Brittany Murphy, on December 20, 2009, at the age of 32, was involved in all kinds of rumours. Icon of adolescent cinema, in which he had debuted with

the cause of his death was a cardiac arrest. He had just finished his latest film,

the release of which ended up being delayed by almost six years. The actress of

or

She had been ill for several days with pneumonia, to which she added anemia due to lack of iron.

Her widower, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, died five months later, also of a heart attack.

The actress's father, Angelo Bertolotti, with ties to the mafia but who had not had much to do with his daughter, spoke of poisoning.

All the evidence rejected a possible homicide.

BRITTANY MURPHY ACTRESS.CORDON

Heath Ledger.

It was a real catastrophe, such as had not been known since the days of River Phoenix or James Dean.

On January 22, 2008, and only 28 years old, Ledger died in his apartment due to accidental drug poisoning (for which he had a prescription).

He had not yet released

which led him to win a posthumous Oscar playing the Joker.

The statuette was collected by his parents and his sister.

At the time of his death, Ledger was playing Tony in

Terry Gilliam's

.

On his resume,

or

, and the feeling that he was going to be great.

Actor Heath Ledger.AP

Brad Renfro.

Brad Renfro's career had already been cut short, due to his addictions to alcohol and drugs, before his death, due to an overdose, on January 15, 2008, at the age of 25.

Discovered by Joel Schumacher, with whom he made his debut in 1994 in

, he later appeared in

or

but he plummeted.

Of his last works, only Confidants (2008) can be

.

Brad Renfro, early in his career, and a year before he died.Getty/Cordon Press

RiverPhoenix.

The eldest of the Phoenix died at the age of 23 of an overdose on October 31, 1993, outside the club co-owned by his friend Johnny Depp, the Viper Room, in West Hollywood. At his side, his brother Joaquin and his girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis. River Phoenix was the leader of a great generation of actors, and you only have to look at his resume to see his talent:

or

The night of his death he was going to play at the club with Depp and Flea (bassist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers), but the stage was very small and he sat down to watch them.

Over time it was learned that he had had a

drink without being told that it contained that drug.

By the way, Federico Fellini died on the same day.

River Phoenix, in 1988. George Rose (Getty Images)

Brandon Lee.

Brandon Lee died on the set of

on March 31, 1993, in an accident caused by a pistol loaded with live ammunition.

He was 28 years old and starring in the film with which he hoped to become a star.

The actor was the son of the legend Bruce Lee, who died just two decades earlier, in 1973, at just 32 years old, due to cerebral edema.

Brandon Lee, a year before his death. Photo: Getty

Sharon Tate.

She was 26 years old and was going to conquer the world, because few like her combined beauty and talent.

She was pregnant by Roman Polanski, her husband, who was in England at the time.

On August 8, 1969, Sharon Tate was two weeks away from giving birth when members of the Manson family, led by Charles Manson, broke into her home and murdered the actress and her friends.

That night was rewritten on the screen by Quentin Tarantino in

a tribute to the interpreter of

or

Actress Sharon Tate in New York in August 1967.Getty

James Dean.

Before Dean there had already been prematurely cut short careers in Hollywood, such as Jayne Mansfield's, but Dean's death occurred in the midst of a generational change in Hollywood. The car accident in which this 24-year-old rising star was killed on September 30, 1955, while en route to a Salinas motor show in his Porsche Spyder 550, is remembered by generations of moviegoers. He

only worked in three films as a leading

and

enough to build the legend of the guy who said: “Dream as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were to die today."

James Dean at a gas station with the Porsche 550 Spyder, hours before the accident that ended his life.Bettmann (Bettmann Archive)