Straight out of Hollywood comes another tragedy. As I clicked on the Buzzfeed and Huffington Post, I read the blogs about a celebrity passing away with a self-inflicted gun shot.
I happen to click on the link and realize that the man was a former Disney Channel star.
Lee Thompson Young was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment in an apparent suicide.
We here at Journal de la Reyna send our condolences to the family of Lee Thompson Young.
He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the son of Velma (née Love) and Tommy Scott Young. He was in the second grade when his parents' marriage ended, and he went to live with his mother.
At age ten, he portrayed Martin Luther King in a play called A Night of Stars and Dreams by Dwight Woods, and the Phillis Wheatley Repertory Theater of Greenville, South Carolina. It was then that Lee decided he wanted to become an actor. After doing community theater for a while, he traveled to New York during the spring break of 1996 and secured an agent.
He went on to become a famed teenage actor.
Have you may have heard of The Famous Jett Jackson?
It was a mid 1990s sitcom about a boy named Jett Jackson (Lee Thompson Young) who plays a teenage secret-agent on a fictional TV show-within-a-show called Silverstone.
Jett Jackson previously lived with his actress mother in Los Angeles, but missed his home and his friends.
Longing for a relatively normal life, Jett succeeds in getting the production of Silverstone moved to the fictional Wilsted, North Carolina, thus providing jobs to townspeople while affording Jett the chance to live with his father, Sheriff Woodrick "Wood" Jackson, and his great-grandmother, Miz Coretta (whom Jett calls Nana).
Keeping in touch with his mother Jules by video link on his computer (though by the third season she also moved to Wilsted), Jett now spends part of his time with family, friends and school, and the rest living the life of a working actor and celebrity. In doing so, Jett often ends up in sticky situations, usually aided and abetted by his childhood friend, J.B., his not-quite girlfriend Kayla, and sometimes by Cubby, Silverstone's wacky special effects wizard.
In the second half of the series, Jett's new co-star, Riley Grant, is added to the mix.
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| Hollywood mourns lost of actor Lee Thompson Young. |
In 2009, Young played a cocky surgical intern in the hit comedy show Scrubs. It is revealed that his character was an overweight child. The character becomes involved in a romance with one of the medical interns.
Young played the role of Al Gough, an FBI agent, in the new ABC television drama FlashForward. He was written off the show in episode 7, when his character committed suicide to prevent the death of an innocent civilian.
He lastly played Barry Frost, partner of Jane Rizzoli (actresss Angie Harmon) on the TNT drama Rizzoli & Isles, and made an appearance on the Fox drama The Good Guys as the brother and business partner of an arms dealer.
This made a huge shakeup for the Rizzoli & Isles series. The puts a hold (suspension) of the series.
There was no official cause of death, but Young's manager, Paul Baruch, said the actor "tragically took his own life."
"Lee was more than just a brilliant young actor, he was a wonderful and gentle soul who will be truly missed. We ask that you please respect the privacy of his family and friends as this very difficult time," Baruch said in a statement.
Young's body was found at his North Hollywood home by police Monday morning after he failed to show up for work on TNT's crime drama "Rizzoli & Isles," police Officer Sally Madera said. The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned and pronounced him dead at the scene, she said.
LAPD robbery-homicide detectives and the Los Angeles County coroner office were investigating because it is a high-profile death, she said. Madera had no details about the cause of death.
In the TNT series, Young played fledgling police Detective Barry Frost, who's computer savvy but squeamish. Earlier Monday, the channel announced it was renewing the series that stars Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
"We are beyond heartbroken at the loss of this sweet, gentle, good-hearted, intelligent man. ... Lee will be cherished and remembered by all who knew and loved him, both on- and offscreen, for his positive energy, infectious smile and soulful grace," TNT, studio Warner Bros. and series producer Janet Tamaro said in a joint statement.
They sent condolences to his mother and other family members.
According to a biography from TNT, Young was inspired to pursue acting when, at age, 10, he played Martin Luther King Jr. in a play in Young's hometown of Columbia, S.C.
In 1998, Young began starring in "The Famous Jett Jackson," playing a TV action hero who returns to his roots for a less high-profile life. The series ran until 2001.
Young followed it with roles in TV series, including "The Guardian," ''Scrubs" and "Smallville" and in the films "Akeelah and the Bee" and "The Hills Have Eyes II." Young joined "Rizzoli & Isles" when it debuted in 2010.
"I'm the youngest member of the cast, so I really take advantage of the wealth of knowledge that I find myself surrounded by," Young said in a 2011 interview with the website Rolling Out.
Young, a graduate of University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, was an as an avid photographer, traveler and student of martial arts, according to his biography.