Paul Walker, of Fast and Furious fame, dead at 40

[HeadphoneAddict]

http://usat.ly/1cInyhN

Bummed - he wasn't the greatest actor, but he had heart. I'll miss him.

"Paul Walker, one of the main stars of the popular Fast and Furious action-movie franchise, was killed on Saturday in a car accident in Santa Clarita, Calif.

The actor's representative, Ame Van Iden, confirmed his death to USA TODAY. He was 40.

Walker had returned home for the holidays from the Atlanta set of Fast and Furious 7 and was scheduled to return next week.

The California native appeared in all but one of the Fast and Furious movies, starring as Brian O'Conner opposite Vin Diesel. Other movie credits include Varsity Blues, Eight Below, Takers and the upcoming Hours, an indie drama set in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina out Dec. 13.

Fast & Furious 7 is scheduled to be released July 11. Walker also is set to star in the cop drama Brick Mansions, due Nov. 27.

Universal Pictures released a statement on Walker's death Saturday night:

"All of us at Universal are heartbroken. Paul was truly one of the most beloved and respected members of our studio family for 14 years, and this loss is devastating to us, to everyone involved with the FAST AND FURIOUS films, and to countless fans. We send our deepest and most sincere condolences to Paul's family."

Contributing: Scott Bowles"

[naamanf]

Little of irony in this. Especially seeing the 45mph sign In the background.

[grawk]

My wife was saying it happened at a charity exhibition.  It's a shame.

[Dusty Chalk]

Aw, man, that's awful.  I hope it wasn't because he thought he could drive like the character in the movies and couldn't separate reality from fiction.

[grawk]

last story she read said it was his friend's car, and paul was the passenger.  Not sure what the relationship of this was to the charity event, but he'd apparently been giving people rides as part of that event.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Update:

Paul Walker, one of the main stars of the popular Fast and Furious action-movie franchise, was killed on Saturday in a car accident in Santa Clarita, Calif.

The actor's representative, Ame Van Iden, confirmed his death to USA TODAY. He was 40.

Walker had returned home for the holidays from the Atlanta set of Fast and Furious 7 and was scheduled to return next week.

A statement on Walker's Facebook page says the actor died while attending a charity event for his organization Reach Out Worldwide.

The statement continued: "(Walker) was a passenger in a friend's car, in which both lost their lives. We appreciate your patience as we too are stunned and saddened beyond belief by this news. Thank you for keeping his family and friends in your prayers during this very difficult time. We will do our best to keep you apprised on where to send condolences. #TeamPW."

[Wmcmanus]

Just awful.  I'm gutted.  So sad to lose two young lives in this manner, no matter who they are and it happens all too often.  My heart goes out to the families and friends they left behind.

[HiWire]

A sad story. Maybe not so oddly, I thought of James Dean when I read about this.

[MexicanDragon]

Dusty, he was a better driver in real life than the one in the movies. He was a rather good racer, and was a passenger in someone else's Porsche Carrera GT. The driver of the car was as accomplished of a driver as PW.

The charity is Reach Out World Wide, and they were raising money to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines.

This is a bummer for the car guy community. I loved the F&F franchise (setting aside how good or not good they were), and it did a lot for car enthusiasm. The driver of the Porsche was Roger Rodas, CEO of Always Evolving, the shop that built Paul Walker's race cars, and who used to race himself in the Pirelli World Challenge series. It looks like they were taking the rare car from a car show at the shop to the charity event.

I obviously know more about PW than RR, but definitely a tragic loss in my eyes.

 

**BRENT**

 

[n_maher]

Just sad.

[CD44hi]

Man, this really sucks. Incidentally, I think they had a re-run of the 2001 original F&F on Thursday or Friday. I was thinking that, for what the movie is, it had aged well. Sad.

[Jon L]

Very sad news.  Makes us wonder what *we* would do if we had a rare Porsche Carrera GT for a short time..

 

"The 40-year-old Walker was riding in a red Porsche GT about 3:30 p.m. when the sports car flew off the road and slammed into a tree in Santa Clarita, authorities and witnesses said. The car burst into flames."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/paul-walker-dies-crash-report-article-1.1533786

 

CarreraGT by drjlo2, on Flickr

Edited December 1, 2013 by Jon L

[naamanf]

Wow horrible how that all played out. Can't imagine how it must have been for the drivers son and all the friends. 

[swt61]

Very sad indeed.

[raffy]

Just read about this, sad news. RIP Paul Walker.

[purk]

It is a sad and very tragic news.  I really like the guy and seem very down to earth.  He was filming the F&F7 here in Atlanta just a month earlier.  These guys were doing a good deeds raising money for a really good cause.  Feel sad for his girl.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Yeah, these guys were good drivers, racers in real life, and humanitarians. The good guys always go early.

It almost seems strange that I had just bought the 1st, 5th and 6th F&F movie on 11/20 & then this happened 10 days later. I was looking forward to #7 that also had parts filmed here in Colorado Springs.

[chinsettawong]

RIP. 

[LeeroyJenkins]

must have gotten driving lessons from Ryan Dunn.

[Nebby]

must have gotten driving lessons from Ryan Dunn.

 

What a fantastic first post.

[Spychedelic Whale]

The guy supposedly was testing his new car, looking at the crash picture no way they were going at a safe speed. Had been a Tesla .. no smoky fire?.

[Wmcmanus]

looking at the crash picture no way they were going at a safe speed...

 

Well... ya...

[padam]

It could have been a steering pump fluid leakage problem which lead to losing control at high speed. It is unknown at this point, but they did find something near the scene. The car was serviced frequently and properly.

Also strange, but the Carrera GT's direct successor the 918 Spyder prototype was also crashed at the Autobahn a few weeks ago (test driver and passenger both injured), but it was not revealed until a few weeks later, and they are trying to keep it quiet.

It is not going well for Porsche at the moment, especially if it really turns out to be a car failure... I really don't get the hybrid sports concept at all anyway, just one more potential hazard to deal with, who cares if it saves some fuel (especially in a sportscar)...

Edited December 3, 2013 by padam

[grawk]

I don't think it's for fuel savings, I think those cars make way more power for their weight.

[padam]

LaFerrari and Mclaren P1 does that purely for extra speed with their KERS-like systems.

But Porsche wanted to make it run on pure electric power (claiming ultra-low emissions which will not correlate with how these cars will be used) and for that they made the hybrid system really-really complex, and also, much much heavier, it would be much faster with less weight.
Not that it is not hyper fast already anyway, it just could have been faster still...

The problem is no matter how stiff these cars are, a very high speed crash will almost surely end-up in a disaster because of the forces involved and more batteries also means more stuff to catch fire...

Edited December 3, 2013 by padam