BROWNSVILLE, Texas — “RJ Mitte, my sweet son on Breaking Bad has died,” Bryan Cranston wrote on Monday, and the actor who played Walter White Jr. for five seasons was 34.
Mitte’s representatives announced the death and said he died by suicide, NBC News reported. Cyndi Hinojosa, the Brownsville justice of the peace, said she declared him dead at 1:32 p.m. but could not disclose a cause. The statement began, “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of beloved actor, philanthropist,” and asked for privacy for his family and loved ones.
Mitte was 15 when Breaking Bad, the AMC Networks series, debuted in January 2008, and he stayed for all five seasons as Walter White Jr., the teenage son of a high school teacher turned methamphetamine producer. He had cerebral palsy, as the character did.
Cranston, who played his father, said he was in “deep despair.” “I met him when he was only 14 years old,” he wrote, and “that kid was pretty raw when we started shooting the pilot in February of 2007.” The two had been texting about “figuring out when we could meet for lunch,” he said, and he ended with “All that promise and potential now is such a loss,” according to ABC News.
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Mitte was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 3 and moved to Los Angeles at 12 or 13, NBC News reported. His representatives said that “drawing from his own experience living with cerebral palsy, Mitte brought authenticity to the role,” and that he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s and as president of The Mitte Foundation. In 2016 he said, “I think we all have an obligation to have an impact for the positive.”
His later credits include the science-fiction film The Recall in 2017, the horror film The Oak Room in 2020 and, in 2021, Triumph, in which he played a high schooler with cerebral palsy who wants to become a wrestler. The film won the Ruderman Family Foundation’s Seal of Authentic Representation.
Mitte had moved to Brownsville, and Hinojosa said he “will be very, very much missed” there. “He was so gracious to our town,” she said in a phone interview.
None of the accounts reviewed carries a police or medical examiner statement, and Hinojosa said she could not disclose the cause herself.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US, which is open around the clock.
