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FireFlyz | 17
DID
YOUKNOW?
Anton Yelchin
, known for his role as Chekov in the recent
Star Trek films, passed away recently due to amishapwith his
car.
Fireflyz
shares some facts about this youngmanwho
started acting at an early age.
The F inal
F r o n t i e r
Anton Yelchin was born March 11,
1989, in Leningrad, Soviet Union.
His parents were
celebrity figure
skaters. Irina and
Viktor Yelchin
were the
stars of the
Leningrad
Ice Ballet,
performing
for them
for 15
years.
Nationally, Yelchin’s parents were
the third-ranked pair team and they
thus qualified for the 1972 Winter
Olympics. The Soviet authorities,
however, did not permit his parents
to participate. The reason for this
was never clear.
His journey in films started at a very
early age. Yelchin’s first filmwas an
independent movie when he was
just nine years old. His big breakout
movie role was in Hearts of Atlantis
in 2001, which won him an award at
the Young Artist Awards. In 2007,
he starred in the thriller Alpha
Dog, which won himmuch
praise. The acting jobs
carried on, with his
most famous role being
that of Pavel Chekov.
Anton Yelchin’s
uncle is the
children’s author
and painter Eugene
Yelchin.
Yelchin was musically gifted and
was once in a punk band called
The Hammerheads, saying that he
liked playing the guitar and loved
acoustic music. During an interview,
he explained that his experience
with music was a great help to him
when making his film, Green Room.
His family moved to the United
States in September 1989, when
Yelchin was six months old, after
receiving refugee status from the
United States Department of State.
Yelchin’s mother then
worked as a figure
skating choreographer
and his father as a figure
skating coach. His father
was Sasha Cohen’s first
trainer.
He attended film
school, went to the
Sherman Oaks
Center for Enriched
Studies in Tarzan,
California. He later
went on to study
film at USC School
of Cinematic Arts
in 2007.
Another one of his more famous
role is that of Odd Thomas,
based on the character
and the book created
by Dean Koontz.