Fast & Furious star Paul Walker

Описание: Fast & Furious star Paul Walker, 40, dies in car crash

Paul Walker, a leading actor in the Fast & Furious movie series, killed along with the driver of the car he was in that crashed near Los Angeles
Paul Walker, a star of the Fast & Furious film series, has died in a fiery car crash near Los Angeles.


The 40-year-old actor was killed when his friend's Porsche Carrera GT hit a tree and a street lamp at high speed in Valencia. The friend, who was driving, also died.


Walker played a leading role in the six-film action series about illegal street racing, which has become one of the most successful in cinema history after grossing more than $2 billion (£1.2 billion).


Police and Walker's representatives said the pair were killed at about 3.30pm after the friend, who was said to be an experienced driver, lost control of his vehicle.


Walker had been in the area to attend a benefit event for the victims last month's typhoon in the Philippines held by Reach Out Worldwide, a charity he founded to respond to natural disasters. Friends and colleagues in Hollywood paid tribute on Sunday to the much-loved actor, who had a 15-year-old daughter and was celebrated for his charm and Californian surfer good looksBrother I will miss you very much," said Vin Diesel, his co-star in the Fast & Furious series. "I am absolutely speechless. Heaven has gained a new Angel. Rest in Peace."

Christopher Bridges, an actor and rapper known as Ludacris, who also starred in the series, said that Walker would "forever hold a place in all of our hearts".

"Wherever you blessed your presence you always left a mark," said Bridges. "We were like brothers".

A spokesman for Universal Pictures, which produces the Fast & Furious franchise, said in a statement that everyone at the company was "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," the spokesman said. Walker, the son of a fashion model and a sewer contractor, was not married and was separated from Rebecca McBrain, the mother of his daughter, Meadow.

He grew up in a working class Mormon home in Glendale, California and was the eldest of five siblings. He began attending acting auditions as a toddler and was a child model from the age of two.

Walker told interviewers that his childhood work was intended to help provide money for his family rather than propel him to a career of riches and fame.

Bill Townsend, a friend of Walker's who had attended the fundraiser on Saturday, told AP Radio: "He was very happy. He was smiling at everybody, just tickled that all these people came out to support this charity. He was doing what he loved. He was surrounded by friends, surrounded by cars."

Walker was enjoying a career high-point after the sixth Fast & Furious film, which was released earlier this year, became the most lucrative of the series, grossing more than $788 million worldwide.

The seventh film in the franchise began filming in September this year and was scheduled to be released in July next year. Walker and his co-stars were on a break from filming when he was killed.

Walker also stars as a father struggling to keep his infant daughter alive in Hours, a film about 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which is due to be released in the US later this month.