How Breaking Bad star's suicide at 34 has got Hollywood asking itself hard questions

As a child born with cerebral palsy, who had to walk with braces and endure the vicious attentions of bullies, Roy Mitte was well-acquainted with adversity.Yet one of the greatest challenges 'RJ' faced in later life was carving out an acting career that lived up to the stardom he achieved in Breaking Bad – the TV drama series that ran from 2008 to 2013 and is acclaimed as one of the greatest ever made.The talented actor and passionate disability campaigner who played Flynn, the long-suffering son of Bryan Cranston's enigmatic chemistry teacher-turned-drug baron Walter White, publicly decried Hollywood's obsession with physical perfection.He privately expressed frustration, it was revealed on Tuesday, with his failure to win parts that casting directors were determined to give to able-bodied actors.His death at only 34 on Monday at his home in Brownsville, Texas, has not only prompted profound sadness, but also some reflection in his industry on its values.Emergency services were reportedly called to his house at 12.50pm and he was pronounced dead around 40 minutes later.Officials confirmed Mitte – whose neurological condition affects sufferers' ability to move, control muscles and maintain posture and balance – had died by suicide but provided no further details.Cranston, in a moving tribute on Instagram, said he was in 'deep despair' at the sudden passing of his 'sweet son'. The actor RJ Mitte was found dead at his Texas home on Monday after what officials said was suicide Mitte played Walter White Jr alongside Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn on the hit series Breaking BadHe said he first met Mitte when he was cast as his on-screen son at the age of 14.Producers had originally planned to 'kill off' his character early on – but kept him on for all five seasons of Breaking Bad.'Born with cerebral palsy, he never – ever – allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything,' said Cranston.'He met the demanding shooting schedule head on with great determination.'Cranston acknowledged that the young Mitte was 'pretty raw' when they started production in 2007.Being a teenager, he sometimes 'mischievously' ignored the advice that his screen parents, Cranston and actress Anna Gunn, gave him, so he had to 'learn the hard way'.Cranston added that he and Mitte had been texting each other only a few weeks previously, 'figuring out when we could meet for lunch'.He went on: 'I don't know if that lunch would have changed his future… but I do know that I loved him.'Only a year ago, Mitte proposed to his girlfriend of five years, Kennedy Suarez, on her 30th birthday.He last posted about Suarez, who works in corporate human resources, on social media in February when he wished her Happy Valentine's Day.The status of their relationship since then is not clear, although according to some reports they were living together in the home where he took his life. Cranston said after Mitte's suicide that the two had been arranging just weeks previously to meet for lunchJust a week before his death, Mitte gave what appears to have been his final interview and told The Joe Vulpis podcast: 'I live life to the fullest… I always try. I have a very finite amount of time.'Mitte's acting career hardly dried up after Breaking Bad finished, although, as Cranston acknowledged, it never again matched the high-wattage stardom he achieved in the acclaimed series.He appeared in a string of films and TV shows, playing Mind Master in Netflix superhero series The Guardians of Justice, as well as having starring roles in low-budget thrillers and horror films.Just 12 days before his death, he walked the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of his latest independent film, romantic drama Talking To Strangers.The film, produced for streaming giant Amazon Prime, tells the story of 'a guarded loner living with cerebral palsy' who 'has structured his daily life to avoid disappointment'.Mitte also branched into modelling for brands including Gap and Vivienne Westwood, as well as reality TV, participating in the second series of Channel 4's Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls.It's a career that would have seemed beyond his reach as a child. Born in Mississippi, he was adopted by parents who divorced when he was only nine months old and, seeing little of his adopted father, he was raised in Texas and Louisiana.He only learnt that they weren't his birth parents when a stepbrother blurted it out during an argument.Tragedy followed when his mother was left paralysed in a car accident shortly after Mitte's sister, Lacey – 12 years younger than him – was born, leaving the young boy to do much of the work looking after his little sibling.The family later moved to Los Angeles after Lacey was cast in an advert when she was 18 months old, and Mitte followed her into child acting. Mitte with his sister Lacey, whom he followed into child acting after she was cast in an advert aged 18 monthsWith his work as an extra, including in Disney's Hannah Montana series, by the age of 13, RJ soon became the family's main breadwinner.'I have devoted my life to my mum and my sister, and I still take care of them today,' he told an interviewer in 2019.He had done little serious acting work, but was perfect for a Breaking Bad role which specifically called for an actor with dark hair, big eyebrows and mild cerebral palsy.He even knew what it was like to be bullied, as Flynn is in the first series: he once had his hand and foot broken in a particularly brutal attack as a child.Mitte became an ambassador for cerebral palsy, advocating for Hollywood to be more open-minded when it came to casting people with disabilities. He even addressed his cause to the Oxford Union, as one of its youngest speakers at 22.He was evidently talking from experience. In text messages to friends shared with the Daily Mail, he discussed the difficulties he found getting good parts.'When I go for a part, they sometimes tell me that it's not a character with a disability, and I'm like why can't the character be disabled?' he wrote to a friend in 2017.'They get real uncomfortable when I say that.'In another, he said: 'I can do any role, but some of [the casting agents and directors] are a******s who won't even look at me.'An inspiration to many, Mitte challenged not only his industry but also fellow disabled people to rethink their assumptions that they cannot do things.'That's all they hear,' he insisted. 'But you have to look past that.'For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org