Written by Tyler Lamb. Media by Miles Priester.
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Paul Walker may not have been an A-list actor or even someone at the top of most “favorite actors” lists. However, he put most of his career into a franchise that he helped build and bring to the top. His death was shocking to everyone, even the ones who didn’t pay his movies much attention.
A little bit over a week we all heard the bad news, Paul Walker and his driver were in an accident that left both dead. Well, to most it might not have really been “bad” news for them, as they might not have even known who he was. Either way, death is a tragic thing that is never good news. After the news came out, there were a good amount of people calling it fake, claiming different things as “facts” to “prove” that it wasn’t real. Unfortunately, they were wrong and within the hour it seemed almost everyone on social media sites had posted some type of grievance about it.
One thing I saw the most of was people wondering how deaths like this affect anyone but the friends and family of the celebrity. Why are fans sad about this kind of thing, when they didn’t know the actor, they just knew a character they portrayed? The thing is, that is what we are missing. We never get to see that character again, and as selfish as that may seem, it is a way of remembering the actor himself. We all loved seeing Brian O’Connor driving his imported cars on the big screen, and had a blast watching him do it for 5 movies. Fans of the Fast and Furious series, like myself, are upset that the series may have come to such an abrupt end and a member of the Fast family is gone.
You see, if you watch the movies you not only grow to know and love the characters, you see their chemistry together. These actors grew to love one another, and were as much of a family on the screen as they were off. Taking a look at the responses from co-stars Chris Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, and Vin Diesel (just to name a few) will show you how broken up they are about the news. An example being Diesel recently posted a picture saying he broke down in front of Walker’s mom. After Walker’s mother told him she was sorry, he said “Sorry? You’re the mother who lost a son,” and she responded “Yes, but you lost your other half.” A post like this just shows how broken up the Fast family was, and how close they had gotten over the decade of working together.
Since his death, it seems as though report after report has been surfacing about what a kind man Walker was–stories of him buying a couple their dream wedding ring, to just doing charity work everywhere. The world clearly lost one of the few good hearts that was in Hollywood.
Yes, Walker had a longer filmography than just five Fast and Furious movies, but that is what he will be remembered for (other than those eyes). A lot may say that is a bad thing, but I would argue that they haven’t seen the whole series. It has been at the top of it’s game with the most recent installments, Fast 5 and Furious 6. I would highly recommend everyone open up time throughout the week to sit down and watch the series, maybe a movie a night. Grab the popcorn, turn down the lights, get ready for high octane fun, and remember a man for the role he clearly loved reprising, with a cast and crew who clearly loved him.
