'Star Trek' Star Anton Yelchin Dead After Being Crushed By His Own Car

Actor Anton Yelchin, best known for his role as Chekov in Star Trek, was killed by his own car early Sunday morning. Yelchin was 27. His publicist confirmed the sad news to Variety, and issued a statement asking for the public to respect the Yelchin family's wishes for privacy.TMZ, who first reported the news of Yelchin's death, write that friends of the young actor became alarmed after he didn't arrive for a scheduled rehearsal, and arrived at his home in Studio City just after 1 a.m., where they "found him pinned between his car and a brick mailbox, which was attached to a security gate." Police say the car was still running and the car was in neutral, and they believe the car rolled down the driveway backwards. Selena Barros, an investigator with the coroner's office, told the L.A. Times there were "no obvious suspicious circumstances involved."

Yelchin was born in Russia and moved to the U.S. as a baby. He began performing in the late 1990s, and had two separate breakout roles in 2001, with the release of Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis. Earlier year, he starred in the horror film Green Room, and Star Trek Beyond is slated for release in July.

Yelchin's friends, collaborators and admirers expressed their sorrow: