Breaking Bad’s Walt Jr, remembered at 34. Credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
Millions of viewers knew RJ Mitte as Walter White’s son, the teenager with cerebral palsy at the family breakfast table in Breaking Bad. However, British audiences also saw a different side of him when he reported from the Rio Paralympics for Channel 4.
Breaking Bad’s Walt Jr died at his home in Texas
RJ Mitte died on Monday October 12 in Brownsville, Texas, with his representatives describing him in a statement as a “beloved actor, philanthropist and passionate disability rights advocate“.
Police were called to his home shortly before 1pm local time. His representative later told People magazine that he died by suicide, although Brownsville Police Department said the cause and manner of death are still pending while its investigation continues. His family has asked for privacy.
A role that put cerebral palsy on prime-time television
Born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1992, Mitte was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (a condition affecting movement and coordination, caused by damage to the developing brain) at the age of three. He spent much of his childhood in leg braces and on crutches, and only stopped needing walking aids in his teens as sport and exercise built up his strength.
Then came the part that made his name. From 2008 to 2013 he played Walter White Jr, the son who insisted on being called Flynn, opposite Bryan Cranston’s chemistry teacher turned drug manufacturer.
The character had cerebral palsy too, and it’s rare even now to see a disabled actor playing a disabled character in one of the biggest shows on the planet. Mitte went on to roles in Switched at Birth and Netflix’s The Guardians of Justice, and also modelled for Gap and walked the runway for Vivienne Westwood.
Brits got to know him through Channel 4’s Rio Paralympics
For many viewers in the UK, though, the lasting memory is a different job of his. In November 2015 Channel 4 announced he’d be joining its presenting team for the 2016 Paralympic Games, with its head of TV events and sport calling it “hard to think of a better booking”.
Based in Rio, he fronted features and reports and turned up on The Last Leg alongside Adam Hills, as part of what was then the largest team of disabled presenters ever seen on UK television.
He didn’t hold back about why it mattered either. “There is a perception when you have a disability that you are lesser, that you are weaker, but that’s a lie,” he said at the time.
That message carried through the rest of his work, as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s, president of The Mitte Foundation, and a spokesman for disabled performers in the Screen Actors Guild.
Bryan Cranston leads tributes to his on-screen son
Cranston, who first met Mitte when he was 14, remembered him on Instagram as a young man who was one of the stars of a hit show but “still a kid”, signing off with “I’ll miss you, son”.
Aaron Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman, said he was “heartbroken over this news“, while Dean Norris, the show’s Hank Schrader, called him “a sweetheart of a young man” who “will be greatly missed”.
Fans have been pouring condolences onto social media since the news broke, and in a recent podcast appearance Mitte himself said that helping others, and watching a child’s life change, was “the greatest thing I’ve ever seen”.
Where to find support in Spain and the UK
Cranston used his tribute to urge anyone having dark thoughts to reach out, and the same help exists for readers here.
In Spain, the 024 line (the national suicide prevention helpline) is free, open 24 hours a day and has English-speaking counsellors. Samaritans in Spain also runs a free English-language line on 900 525 100, open from 10am to midnight every day, while Samaritans in the UK can be reached on 116 123. In an emergency, call 112.