Biography
Date of Birth
11 December 1989, Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]
Birth Name
Anton Viktorovich Yelchin
Height
5' 9" (1.75 m)
Death
December 2016, Studio City, California, USA, blunt traumatic asphyxia
Mini Biography
Anton Yelchin was an American actor, known for playing Bobby in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Chekov in the Star Trek (2009) reboot, Charlie Brewster in the Fright Night (2011) remake, and Jacob in Like Crazy (2011).
He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, USSR, to a Jewish family. His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were a successful pair of professional figure skaters in Leningrad, and his grandfather was also a professional sportsman, a soccer player. Anton was a six-month-old baby when he emigrated to the United States, where his parents settled in California and eventually developed coaching careers. He demonstrated his strong personality from the early age of four, and declined his parents' tutelage in figure skating because he was fond of acting and knew exactly what he wanted to do in his life.
Yelchin attended acting classes in Los Angeles, and eventually was noticed by casting agents. In 2000, at the age of 10, he made his debut on television, appearing as Robbie Edelstein in the medical drama ER (1994). At the age of 11, he shot to fame as Bobby Garfield, co-starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), and earning himself the 2002 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Young Actor. Over the course of his acting career, Yelchin has already played roles in more than 20 feature films and television productions, including Pavel Chekov in the hugely successful reboot Star Trek (2009), and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Outside of his acting profession, Anton loved reading, and was also fond of playing chess. He wrote music and performed with a band, where he also played piano and guitar.
Anton lived in Los Angeles, California, until his death on the evening of June 19, 2016, outside his LA home, when his parked Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backward on his steep driveway, pinning him against a brick pillar and security fence. This was due to badly designed shifter that indicated park when it was in neutral. This death, along with reports of other near-misses, resulted in a recall of that model.
Trivia
Was a huge fan of acoustic blues music.
Loved playing chess, reading, played piano and played guitar.
The only child of Viktor Yelchin and Irina Korina, Anton's parents are still involved in figure skating. The family emigrated to the United States from Russia when he was six months old. His father is a coach in California and his mother, Irina, is a figure skating choreographer. His parents and Viktor Yelchin and Irina Yelchin, were both well-known figure skaters in the Soviet Union, considered national celebrities as stars of the Leningrad Ice Ballet for 15 years. The two qualified for the 1972 Winter Olympics but were not permitted to participate by the Soviet authorities. Anton had said, "I don't exactly know what that was - because they were Jewish or because the KGB didn't want them to travel".
Hope Davis has played his on-screen mother in two movies: Hearts in Atlantis (2001) and Charlie Bartlett (2007).
Ranked #12 on Moviefone's "The 25 Hottest Actors Under 25" (2008).
Named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in the World (2009).
Attended and graduated from high school at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Reseda, California.
He and Walter Koenig, who preceded him as Pavel Chekov, are both of Russian Jewish ancestry.
Had played younger versions of two classic science fiction film characters. He played Pavel Chekov in Star Trek (2009) and Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation (2009).
Anton Yelchin's uncle is Eugene Yelchin, an illustrator, character designer, and storyboard artist for movies and television, who is also a novelist and children's books author.
He and Mika Boorem were on-screen sweethearts in two completely unrelated movies in the same year: Dimitri and Megan in Along Came a Spider (2001) and Bobby and Carol in Hearts in Atlantis (2001).
Had auditioned for Peter Parker/Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in Fantastic Four (2015), both based on Marvel Comics heroes that are reboots.
Following his untimely death, he was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His body was later moved to Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
He was cast as Wally West/The Flash in a proposed Justice League movie to be directed by George Miller in 2007, but the project was cancelled.
The producers of Star Trek said that the role of Pavel Chekov would not be recast and the character would be written out of any following movies. Star Trek Beyond (2016) was dedicated to his memory.
Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) was dedicated to his memory, as he had provided the voice of Clumsy Smurf in the live-action Smurfs films. Additionally, We Don't Belong Here (2017), Rememory (2017), Porto (2016), Newness (2017), and the first two episodes of Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (2016) are dedicated to his memory.
In October 2017, a bronze statue of Anton Yelchin was erected at his grave in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Celebrities present at the unveiling ceremony included Jennifer Lawrence, Zoe Saldana, J.J. Abrams, Emile Hirsch, Demi Moore, Jon Voight, Drake Doremus, and Jeremy Saulnier.
The 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee that rolled into him was part of a 2016 recall for that exact same issue. Incredibly, the recall notice was mailed to Yelchin seven days after his untimely death.
Suffered from cystic fibrosis from an early age, which was not revealed publicly until after his untimely death.
Was an avid fan of the Los Angeles Kings.
In the movie, Burying The Ex, while walking on a date with actress, Alexandra Daddario, they go into The Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where he was shortly buried in real life.
Trademarks:
Distinctive hoarse voice
Sparkling green eyes
Curly brown hair
Quotes
Russia is very complicated. It is one of the most complicated histories. I could go on about this forever. It produces Dostoyevsky and Rachmaninoff and then it produces Stalins and Lenins. It is such a strange combination. I don't know why that rant about Russia was necessary.
I have an aversion to remakes, which is ironic because I'm in two of them right now. When I went back and watched T3 recently, I thought we need to make a better movie. I can't say I'm a fan.
I was a horrible athlete. My parents are athletes; they tried me to get me to do that, but I just couldn't. I sucked. First I wanted to be a scientist, and I set our bathroom on fire. Then I wanted to be a basketball player and I'm a not-very-tall white, Russian Jewish kid. So that didn't work out either.
Guilt is a very important part of my personality... There are two things at work here, history and genetics. The history of Eastern European Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, has not been very pleasant. And I'm not just talking about World War II, but centuries and centuries of oppression and pogroms. If you are a product of that environment, it is a very big part of who you are. That's not to say it's all you are, but it is a part.
