translated from Spanish: We remember Paul Walker, the actor who would be 47 today

Paul Walker was an actor, model, racing driver and marine biologist. But we all met him as Brian O’Conner in the action film “Fast and Furious” in 2001. The actor began his career as a child in advertisements and several films, worked as a model and received a career as a marine biologist. He founded the charity “Reach Out Worldwide” (ROWW), an organization that provides relief efforts for areas affected by natural disasters, so he was often praised for his off-screen charity work. And although he is remembered for the action saga, Walker made more than 30 films and several appearances on television shows. He also participated in 4 video clips of different musicians.

He was a car lover among his cars, with a Nissan Skyline R34, which he used in the films of the “Fast and Furious” series and a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, with which he would have the final accident, of which only just over 1,200 units were manufactured.

He played the role of narrator and host on the National Geographic Channel Expedition: Great White series, which premiered in June 2010. He spent 11 days as part of the crew, during the capture and labelling of seven large white sharks off the coast of Mexico, thus fulfilling an ancient dream. He ran for the role of Star Wars Jedi Anakin Skywalker, but was denied it because they were looking for a younger actor. Paul Walker suffered a tragic accident that cost him his life on November 30, 2013, after colliding his red Porsche Carrera GT against an electric pole and a tree, as he left on a bend, causing his vehicle, driven at that time by his friend and partner Roger Rodas, with him as co-pilot, to be consumed by the flames in a short time. 

Hours earlier, Walker had breakfast with his mother and his only daughter, Meadow, with which he lived. He planned to buy a Christmas tree that day to decorate it as a family, as he liked to do every year. It was a common morning, until the actor got a message. He told them he had to go out and he did. It was the last moment he shared with them.

“We were having this good conversation, and he had forgotten about an event he had. He got a text message, said, “Oh, my God, I have to be somewhere” and he came out,” Cheryl said. It was a solidarity event organized by his NGO Reach Out Worldwide to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Walker was there, he did that job. On the way home he passed away. His co-equiper on the big screen, and great friend Vin Diesel, told the talk he had with Cheryl, Paul’s mom, within hours of his friend’s death: “He hugged me and said, ‘I’m so sorry.’ And I said, ‘How are you sorry? You’re the mother who just lost a child.’ And he said, ‘Yes, but you just lost your other half.'”

Except in the third and eighth installments of the film, he acted in all of them. His death, in fact, was while the seventh part was being filmed. He didn’t get to record all his scenes and at the end of the film there’s a sense of homage.

Original source in Spanish