RJ Mitte, Walter White Jr. on ‘Breaking Bad,' Dies at 34

RJ Mitte, who played Walter "Flynn" White Jr. on "Breaking Bad," has died. He was 34.

According to TMZ, a county official confirmed that Mitte died Monday in Texas, and the outlet reports that he died by suicide.

The news is hard to process given how recently he seemed to be doing well. Just last week, Mitte sat down with "The Joe Vulpis Podcast" and talked about how "Breaking Bad" transformed his life and how close he stayed with the cast. Earlier this month, he posted photos with his former co-star Luis Moncada in which both were smiling.

Mitte appeared in 56 episodes of Vince Gilligan's series. Like his character, he lived with cerebral palsy, and he gave Walt Jr. a lived-in authenticity. He was the emotional center of a show about a father's moral collapse.

What stings is that the industry never seemed to know what to do with Mitte once the show ended. His co-stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Bob Odenkirk and Giancarlo Esposito all went on to a range of movies and TV shows. Mitte, meanwhile, spent the post-"Breaking Bad" years mostly in small indie films and guest spots. He was candid about why, speaking often about how few roles were written for actors with disabilities.

Mitte's later credits were not the type one amasses after starring in what many consider the best series of the last 25 years: "The Oak Room," "The Recall" and "The Guardians of Justice (Will Save You!)." I hadn't heard of any of them.

NOTE: Several readers pointed towards Mitte's appearance on "The Iced Coffee Hour," where he said a former business manager pocketed the money meant for his taxes and gave him falsified receipts. He said he spent years paying back the IRS, eventually paying more than he'd netted from "Breaking Bad."

Mitte was engaged to Kennedy Suarez. He proposed last year after several years of dating. This an absolute tragic story.