Paul Walker, star of the wildly popular Fast & Furious films, died Saturday in a fiery crash in Southern California. He was 40 years old.
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His publicist, Ame van Iden, confirmed his death, but would not elaborate beyond statements posted on Walker's official Twitter and Facebook accounts.
He was a passenger in a friend's 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, and both were attending a charity event for his organization, Reach Out Worldwide, in the community of Valencia in Santa Clarita, about 30 miles north of Hollywood, CNN reports.
The group’s website said the event was set up to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office reports that speed was a factor in the crash, which took place at about 3:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET), CNN reports, about 300 yards from the office park where the charity event was held. The speed limit there is 45 mph. The road near the crash shows scorch marks, as though someone smoked their tires in figure-eight patterns, the report shows.
Walker’s acting career took off after he won the role as undercover cop Brian O'Conner infiltrating a street-racing gang in 2001's The Fast and the Furious. The film’s success spawned a number of sequels. And Walker, along with Vin Diesel, had become fixtures in the popular franchise.
At the time of his death, Walker was working on the franchise’s seventh film, which is due out next year.
Read more at CNN.
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