ANTON YELCHIN - dies aged 27 - R.I.P.

Anton Viktorovich Yelchin died tragically, aged just 27, on the morning of 19th June 2016, in what is described as a freak car accident at his home in Los Angeles, California. Due at a rehearsal later that day, when he was a no-show his friends drove over to his house and found him pinned against a brick wall and security gate by his car, dying in the process from blunt traumatic asphyxia. The Jeep Grand Cherokee car which caused his death was a 2015 model that had been recalled for a roll away risk. Truly tragic circumstances.

Born in Leningrad, Russia on 11th March 1989 to ice skating champions Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin his family were subjected to political and religious oppression, and so at the age of just six months, his family relocated to the USA having gained refugee status.

His first acting role came at the age of nine, when he was cast in 'A Man is Mostly Water' with a part on 'E.R' that same year.  This was quickly followed up with 'Delivering Milo' with Albert Finney, 'Along Came a Spider' with Morgan Freeman, 'Hearts in Atlantis' with Anthony Hopkins, and then a heap of television series including 'Taken', 'The Practice', 'Without a Trace', 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'NYPD Blue' - all before he was even 15 years of age. More big Hollywood fare followed with 'House of D' with David Duchovny, 'Fierce People' with Donald Sutherland, 'Alpha Dog' with Bruce Willis, 'Charlie Bartlett' with Robert Downey Jnr. and 'Middle of Nowhere' with Susan Sarandon. In between there were further television appearances on 'Huff', 'Criminal Minds' and 'Law & Order : Criminal Intent'.

In 2009 J.J. Abrams cast Yelchin as Pavel Chekov in the reboot of the Star Trek franchise in 'Star Trek' - a role he would reprise again in 2013 in 'Star Trek : Into Darkness' and again in the yet to be released 'Star Trek : Beyond' due later this year, and with an all star cast. It is perhaps for this role that he is best well known fitting into the shoes created by Walter Koenig in the original Gene Roddenberry television series of the '60's and seven of the first series of feature films up until 1994.

Immediately following the Star Trek reboot in 2009, came another reboot of a hugely successful franchise founded in the early 80's, with 'Terminator : Salvation' with his role as Kyle Reece opposite Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. 'Like Crazy' came next with Jennifer Lawrence, then the Roland Joffe Directed 'You and I', followed by Jodie Foster's 'The Beaver' with Mel Gibson, then the remake of the classic horror 'Fright Night' with Colin Farrell, and 'Odd Thomas' based on the Dean Kootz novel with Willem Dafoe.

'Only Lovers Left Alive' with Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, '5 to 7', 'Cymbeline', and 'Burying the Ex' for Joe Dante, 'Dying of the Light' for Paul Schrader, 'Experimenter', 'Broken Horses', 'The Driftless Area' and 'Green Room' bring us up to date, with the latter only being released in Australia last month. In the meantime there were further television series appearances, a number of short films, and his voice talents as 'Clumsy' in 'The Smurfs' and 'The Smurfs 2', and 'From Up On Poppy Hill' 

Yelchin has 65 acting credits, with five films still yet to be released - those being - 'Star Trek : Beyond', 'Rememory' with Peter Dinklage, 'Thoroughbred', 'We Don't Belong Here' and 'Porto'. He had six award wins to his name and another eleven nominations.

So much achieved at just 27 years of age from an acting career already spanning 18 years. With a diverse acting range from cute & cuddly Smurfs to zombie beaters, to neo nazi horror, to near future terminators, to going boldly where no man has gone before to RomCom, action and Mexican drug cartels, Yelchin was up for anything and everything and was a rising star, in demand, and will be sorely missed by those closest to him, those that had the pleasure of working with this young gifted talent, and by us - the film going public.

Anton Yelchin - Rest In Peace
1989-2016

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 11th - 17th October 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Mia Wasikowska does on 14th October - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 26 at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 11th October

• Dawn French - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actress | Writer | Television Personality
• Joan Cusack - Born 1962, turns 53 - Actress
• Luke Perry - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Producer
• David Morse - Born 1953, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Writer

Monday 12th October

• Hugh Jackman - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Josh Hutcherson - Born 1992, turns 28 - Actor | Producer

Tuesday 13th October

• Chris Carter - Born 1956, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Sacha Baron Cohen - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer
• Kelly Preston - Born 1962, turns 53 - Actress

Wednesday 14th October

• Mia Wasikowska - Born 1989, turns 26 - Actress | Director | Writer
• Lori Petty - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actress | Director | Writer
• Roger Moore - Born 1927, turns 88 - Actor | Producer
• Steve Coogan - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Ben Whishaw - Born 1980, turns 35 - Actor

Thursday 15th October

• Todd Solondz - Born 1959, turns 56 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Dominic West - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor | Director | Producer
• Michael Caton-Jones - Born 1957, turns 58 - Director | Producer 

Friday 16th October

• Tim Robbins - Born 1958, turns 57 - Actor | Producer | Director 
• David Zucker - Born 1947, turns 68 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Gary Kemp - Born 1959, turns 56 - Actor | Songwriter | Musician
• Peter Bowles - Born 1936, turns 79 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Angela Lansbury - Born 1925, turns 90 - Actress | Writer | Singer

Saturday 17th October

• Felicity Jones - Born 1983, turns 32 - Actress
• Margot Kidder - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actress
• Matthew Macfadyen - Born 1974, turns 41 - Actor
• Rob Marshall - Born 1960, turns 55 - Director | Producer

Mia Wasikowska was born and raised in Canberra, Australia to mother Marzena Wasikowska, a Polish born photographer, and father John Reid, an Australian photographer and artist. She has an older sister Jess, and a younger brother Kai. At age eight the whole family upped sticks and moved to Poland for a year because her mother received a grant to produce a body of photographic work recounting her experiences in moving to Australia in 1974 when she was just eleven years of age. The three young children took part in the photographic production - just doing what kids do - nothing was staged or planned. Upon returning to Canberra a year or so later the nine year old Mia started ballerina training at the Canberra Dance Development Centre with her sights set upon a professional career. Aside from a full time school career to gain an education, she was ballet training for 35 hours per week - a gruelling routine! By 14 however, she was disillusioned and feeling the increasing pressure of perfection, so she quit. Having been exposed to a number of European and Australian films in her youth she gained the inspiration and the motivation to pursue a career in acting. With no prior acting experience she made contact with a dozen or so Australian talent agencies to secure roles - only one ever bothered to call her back.

It was 2004 and Wasikowska secured her first acting role on two episodes of the Australian Hospital drama series 'All Saints'. In 2006 she scored her first film acting role on 'Suburban Mayhem' which garnered her the Young Actors AFI Award. This led to 'Rogue' in 2007 with Sam Worthington and Radha Mitchell, and that same year 'September' with Xavier Samuel.

At 17 she was to receive her break in the US when she was cast in HBO's 'In Treatment'. For this she needed to leave Canberra High School for her role as Sophie in nine episodes while basing herself in Los Angeles for three months. She earned critical praise for her performance alongside Gabriel Bryne. This in turn led to her being cast by Edward Zwick in 'Defiance' with Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell - playing the wife of the latter actor, with whom she has subsequently maintained a strong friendship.

Following this came the 2009 bio-pic 'Amelia' starring Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor and Hilary Swank charting the life, the ups & downs of early aviator Amelia Earhart. Later that year she was also cast in the acclaimed 'That Evening Sun' with Hal Holbrook and had the distinction of being the only non-American actor in this southern states based film due to her strong ability to mimic the required southern American accent.

After a series of auditions she was chosen for the role of Alice in Tim Burton's 2010 'Alice in Wonderland' with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Stephen Fry. The film went on to make in excess of US$1B at the global Box Office, resulting in a sequel, currently in post-production for a mid-2016 release - 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'.

From here she went to 'The Kids Are All Right' with Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, and Annette Bening. This was followed up by her lead role in the much praised 'Jane Eyre' opposite Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench and Jamie Bell again, with 'Restless' for Director Gus Van Sant coming that same year. She was due to appear in the Australian independent film of 'Sleeping Beauty' but turned this down due to scheduling conflicts with the aforementioned 'Restless'. She then turned down Robert Redford's 'The Conspirator'  due to a commitment on 'Restless' also, and she withdrew from an audition having been shortlisted for David Fincher's 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' as Lisbeth Salander. Instead she opted for 'Albert Nobbs' with Glenn Close for which she replaced, at the eleventh hour, Amanda Seyfried.

In 2011 there was a supporting role to Shia LaBeouf in John Hillcoat's 'Lawless' and then 'Stoker' with Nicole Kidman and Jacki Weaver. 2012 brought 'The Double' for Richard Ayoade and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Noah Taylor, and then Jim Jarmusch's 'Only Lovers Left Alive' with Tilda Swinton. 'Tracks' followed, recounting the Australian sand to sea odyssey of Robyn Davidson which appeared in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

2014 saw David Cronenberg's 'Maps to the Stars' with Julianne Moore and John Cusack, and then the lead role in 'Madame Bovary' with Paul Giamatti and Rhys Ifans. Next up, is the due for imminent release 'Crimson Peak' for Guillermo del Toro also starring Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain, and then the sequel to the hugely successful earlier 'Alice' film 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' for Director (this time) James Bobin due for mid-2016, and 'HHHH' also due in 2016 and currently in pre-production.

Wasikowska has 32 acting credits to her name, and two Writer/Director credits also for 'Madly' and 'The Turning'. She has eight award wins and another 34 nominations in her relatively short career so far. 

Mia Wasikowska - avid photographer and so following in her parents footsteps; mostly flying under that radar but still to much critical acclaim; lives in the Sydney beach suburb of Bronte; dating co-star Jesse Eisenberg; and has appeared in numerous short films and full length features - we wish you a very Happy Birthday from your followers at Odeon Online. Best Wishes.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-