RJ Mitte, ‘Breaking Bad’ actor and disability rights champion, dies at 34

Ac­tor and dis­abil­i­ty rights ad­vo­cate RJ Mitte, who brought a life­time of ex­pe­ri­ence with cere­bral pal­sy to fic­tion­al fam­i­ly strug­gles in an es­sen­tial role on “Break­ing Bad,” died Mon­day at age 34, au­thor­i­ties and his rep­re­sen­ta­tives said.

Mitte played Wal­ter White Jr., the son of Bryan Cranston’s chem­istry teacher-turned-meth deal­er Wal­ter White on near­ly every episode of the five sea­sons of the AMC show, which re­cent­ly ranked as the best of the 21st cen­tu­ry in a New York Times poll.

Cameron Coun­ty Jus­tice of the Peace Cyn­di Hi­no­josa told The As­so­ci­at­ed Press she de­clared Mitte dead at about 1:30 p.m. at what she be­lieved was his home in Brownsville, Texas. She said she was un­able to pro­vide a cause, but an au­top­sy will be per­formed.