An Industry Tragedy

The movie super star and multimillionaire, Paul Walker, died on November 30th 2013. He was in a car with Rodger Rodas, Walker’s financial adviser, leaving from an event for Walker’s charity when they crashed into a telephone pole. Investigators believe that the car was going about ninety miles per hour when the car hit the pole. There was little chance of survival for those in the car.

Rodas died of traumatic injuries while Walker died of a combination of traumatic injuries, and thermal injuries (heat injuries). Walker was not behind the wheel of the car, but it was speculated that him and Rodas were involved in street drag racing. Nothing about that claim has been confirmed as of right now.

Walker was in the middle of filming the seventh movie in The Fast and the Furious series, The Fast and the Furious 7. Universal Studios says that the making of the movie will go on a hiatus for now due to the unfortunate tragedy. This news further saddened fans already rattled by the surprising death. One movie-goer, Mrs. Whitman, said “Paul Walker was a good actor and it’s a shame that this happened.” She did not know much else about that accident, but was not affected by the news of the movie hiatus.

On the other hand, IHS student Joey DeMarco was very upset with the news of the hiatus. “I always try to see The Fast and the Furious movies when they are in theaters,” said Joey, “but it looks like that won’t happen any time soon.” While he was unhappy about the movie, he told me that he understood why they are postponing it and is very sad about the terrible accident.

Though Paul Walker was presented with a very short lived life, he did accomplish a lot with the time he did have. Walker started out by doing an ad for a pizza company, and his film career started in 1986 with the movie Monster in the Closet. His acting continued to improve, and after many years in the industry, he scored his first big title in 1999 as a supporting role in Varsity Blues. This movie really gave his career a huge shove in the right direction. In 2001, a short two years later, Walker starred in the first The Fast and the Furious movie with Vin Deisel. The movie was an instant success, springing sequels and a lot of fame for Walker. He became an actor that everybody recognized and liked. If you did not like his work in the movies, it was a challenge to find something you did not like about Walker himself.

Though Walker’s career in the spotlight only lasted him about 12 years, he was able to accomplish many things in regards to movies and land a special place in many movie fan’s hearts. It’s too bad his time to leave us was so young, but his movies will forever be a legacy to him as a person and to his great career and life as a whole.