Walter Jr. was amazing. It's funny, but a lot of us didn't know how much he meant until we found out he was gone. That it was real. Then we thought about a lot of stuff. Things we hadn't thought about for a long time. I guess we kind of took him for granted. You expect the people you grew up watching to always be there — at that kitchen table in Albuquerque, asking what's for breakfast, standing up for his dad when nobody else would.
Now we feel lucky every time we rewatch it. Every “Flynn.” Every breakfast. Every time he's just a kid trying to hold his family together while everything falls apart around him. It means he's still around. Still our Walter Jr.
RJ Mitte was born in 1992 in Jackson, Mississippi. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was a little kid, and Hollywood didn't exactly have a lot of roles written for someone like him. So he took one and made it his own. From 2008 to 2013 he played Walter White Jr. on Breaking Bad, and millions of people saw a teenager with a disability on TV who wasn't a lesson or a punchline. He was just a kid. A real one. A good one.
He never stopped when the cameras did. He spoke at schools and colleges, worked with charities, and kept pushing the industry to cast performers with disabilities. He used every bit of his platform to make the door a little wider for the next kid walking through it. Walter Jr. was the one honest person in that whole house. That's how a lot of us will remember RJ too.
It's been a really hard day for everyone who loved the show. There's never a good time for news like this. He was 34. Way too young. Way too soon.
We're not asking for anything for ourselves. The button below goes straight to Suicide Prevention Services of America — a nonprofit working to protect lives and restore hope through prevention, crisis response and support for families after a loss. Not to us. Not to a wallet. Straight to people who help.
What a wonderful son he was, and what a wonderful man he became.
Rest easy, RJ. Gone at 34. Never forgotten.
To help, please send your contribution to Suicide Prevention Services of America and keep RJ in your prayers!
Remember Walter Jr
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