RJ Mitte has died
news.sky.com164 points by austinallegro 4 hours ago
164 points by austinallegro 4 hours ago
RIP to an actor who was not defined by his disability in the show, but also at age 16 managed to hold his own against veteran actors dean norris, bryan cranston, aaron paul, and betsy brandt.
Definitely a memorable character and performance in Breaking Bad. Way too young, RIP.
Lived in Brownsville for a bit and got to know him towards the end of my stint there. Very nice guy his family does a lot for the arts in the city. He will be incredibly missed.
Incredibly sad. Great actor and sounds like he was a great person. Gone way too soon
I am of course familiar with him from Breaking Bad. I accidentally stumbled across him participating in the (awful) series by Bear Grylls The Island. He did a celebrity survival challenge. Totally wasn't expecting to see him on a 2AM YouTube binge after years of not seeing him at all.
Nooo what a tragedy
> best known for his role as Walter "Flynn" White Jr
in case anyone was wondering (like me)
That was unexpected. He was so young, too. RIP.
If it was by suicide (young deaths usually are), it wasn't so surprising.
I had listened to some podcasts where he said his financial situation hadn't been great.
If you watch them, you can kind of see his mind thinking.
I think you only notice such things if you've entertained the thoughts yourself.
TMZ says it was suicide.
His business manager stole all his money from Breaking Bad so dude actually ended up in debt because of all the taxes he owed. She never paid his taxes which he didn't find out until years later. She was sending him fake documents.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/breaking-bad-walt-jr-says-132...
> According to the actor, the manager allegedly diverted money intended for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and provided falsified documents showing that his taxes had been paid. Mitte remained unaware of the problem for several years until the IRS notified him of outstanding taxes, penalties, and interest. [0]
[0] https://poptvculture.com/what-was-rj-mittes-net-worth-at-dea...
Financial difficulties caused by mismanagement. He should have been wealthy and comfortable after his work. I feel terrible for the guy.
Sounds like he killed the wrong person.
That seems true from our perspective. But from his, there may be a huge difference between committing murder, no matter how justified it may seem, and just leaving the world.
"I write a check to go pay my taxes, and instead of her using it to pay my taxes, she would send me a fake filing of taxes and take that money."
Maybe he was way too innocent! You write a check to the IRS or have federal/state auto-detect. That option is there for sure if filing electronically.
Rather than too innocent, I would say let down by his elders.
It may have changed by now (though I doubt it) but this kind of thing was not covered in my high school or college education and nobody else taught me anything about how taxes work, and so when I entered the workforce in my 20s I was subject to a crash course on the subject after I wound up with a surprise bill from the IRS.
Given that he entered the industry at a young age he very well may have not had anybody teach him any better which enabled the accountant to take advantage of him.
You don't understand how the entertainment business works.
Actors don't get or pay bills, their agent or manager does.
That's part of the justification for taking their 10%: you don't have to worry about anything, anymore. If they were young when they started, it was always like this, and they never learned such basic skills.
Do you think when someone famous drops their phone in a toilet they go stand in line at the Apple store with the normies?
No.
I wonder how many know how to write a check.
More than once I've heard a celebrity explain to an interviewer, "I don't know where the bills go."
When I was making big bank, my accountant suggested I give him check writing ability to make it smoother for me to pay bills.
He was later arrested for fraud.
Amazing.
> I give him check writing ability to make it smoother for me to pay bills.
I immediately smell a giant red flag! I'm dealing with a lawsuit in another country, so I can't be there more than once or twice a year. To handle that situation, I'd have to sign a power of attorney. That document was shocking to read. It gave my lawyer pretty much every possible permission, including withdrawing from the suit at his will, and it said I can't sue him, I can't change attorney, and whatnot. Funny, the doc had been in circulation for the last 50 years. I wrote a new doc and gave him the absolute minimum :-)
But how is he responsible for the back taxes then? There must be a case here where it comes out of her pocket, right?
This kind of theft seems so standard in the industry. It's surprising they get away with it.
Al Pacino got taken for all of his liquid cash: $50 million, by his accountant.
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/al-pacino-broke-act-bad-f...
Dane Cook was famously assfucked out of $12 million by his own (half) brother, who was also his manager. Dude was hiding cash in jars of spaghetti sauce.
IIRC he did prison time for it and it was in the news again recently as it was made into a documentary.
What’s said is that yahoo “article” is really an ad for a budgeting app, offered towards the end as a potential way to protect yourself from the same outcome.
Grift layered on grift. What a world.
Horrible. And she's still doing it to other actors and her identity is not disclosed.
Why isn't she doing a 20 year sentence for this kind of fraud?
It's very confusing because the way the Internet has described it is multiple counts of fraud and theft but I can't find a single reputable source confirming it.
Link to the podcast?
I had the same thought the other day, once you feel a certain way, identifying it in others is much easier. Definitely true for depression and suicide, but I guess I've also seen it be true for gay people as well (who always seem to know within seconds who is and isn't gay).
Canadians have this power too
I think it was iced coffee hour.
edit: another reply posted a new article that links the podcast.
I hope you can find peace. All the best to you
Thanks. It's been like that since I was a kid. I did find some peace for a few months but others noticed and apparently that was enough to attack me for it. Back down we go.
From what I understand, his manager basically withheld a lot of money and didn’t pay taxes, even though claiming they were paid. He didn’t find out until years later, which put him in a lot of debt.
He died by suicide.
A reminder to everyone here: Even when you can’t see a way forward, one can still emerge. Stay. Reach out. You don’t have to face the darkest moments alone.
I’ve attempted suicide three times. Here’s the tip I give people who I encounter these days who have a severe mental illness.
The thing that stopped me from attempting again was 15 years ago I finally realized that no one knows what happens after you die. So I couldn’t really say for sure whether they’re dying by suicide would lead me in a better situation.
I'm really sorry you have gone through that. I have been pretty deeply depressed a couple times in past, to the point of considering suicide. What I share with people is that in those periods, it truly felt like things weren't going to get better and I was just going to be in emotional pain indefinitely.
But gradually, things got better in my life. I have had so much joy in the 20 years since. I still have bad days sometimes, but on the whole, I feel such a sense of gratitude.
I can't promise anyone that their own situation will get better. I can only say that my experience is that it is possible.
I guess this isn't the place for it, but from a scientific point of view, I'm quite certain what's after (i.e. I've convinced myself) ...
Fuck that other person. I'm sorry you have to deal with idiots like that here.
I can't imagine what you're going through but just know that you matter and that the world is a better place with you in it. I hope you are doing better and you get the help you need.
What is the way forward? When people are staring down the barrel of being completely broke, in debt, facing homelessness, malnutrition, deteriorating quality of life until they ultimately die, what is going to emerge except some black swan of event of pure luck that gets you back to a bearable life? Just telling people it gets better doesn’t help, you must help them.
N=1 but reading “Down and Out in Paris & London” by George Orwell really helped me out these things into perspective.
What’s the perspective? Because it’s seems like it’s always some variation of “it could be worse”. Like yea there’s probably a lower circle of hell you could be burning in but you’re still in hell with no way out.
As someone currently struggling in a somewhat similar situation to that book, what gets me through the day is unbridled hate towards the system and an overriding desire to see justice
“People with cerebral palsy experience mental health conditions and psychiatric disorders at significantly higher rates than the general population.”
I’m hard pressed to blame this solely on his financial situations. Cerebral palsy changes the brain. It might be that he had another underlying mental illness that he was afraid to talk about because of the stigma. I mean, this is just guessing, but a lot of people live through our situations without dying by suicide.
I’m a three times suicide survivor and I can tell you it wasn’t anything financial just something that took over my body
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It's sad. The reality you describe is hard to grasp for many but it's the reality of modern life in many ways. I can't say that I wouldn't resort to saying things that I don't fully believe in if one of my friends was on the verge. I would give it shot to make them reconsider it and perhaps it was just an irrational moment.
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Is that a trick question? Anybody can submit something. And as of this moment 119 people upvoted it. There's your answer, the community seems to think it fits here.