Jr. on ‘Breaking Bad,’ dies at 34
In the award-winning “Breaking Bad,” Mitte played Walter White Jr., the teenage son of a high school teacher who becomes a methamphetamine producer.
The series, which debuted in January 2008, when he was 15, provided his breakout role.
Mitte had cerebral palsy, which was reflected on “Breaking Bad,” and he was an advocate for the rights of people living with disabilities.
“Drawing from his own experience living with cerebral palsy, Mitte brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion,” his representatives said in the statement.
“Beyond entertaining friends and family around the world, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s,” they said in the statement.
In 2015, he spoke to the Guardian about being a disabled actor who played disabled characters. “You accept the risks and you accept these will be the parts you play. But it’s all about how you play those parts – you have to show the inner strength that people have,” he said.
Mitte’s co-stars paid tribute to him after news of his death broke, including Cranston, who wrote a lengthy tribute on Instagram. Cranston described him as “my sweet son on Breaking Bad”, a “fine actor” and a “vocal advocate for performers with disabilities”.
“It is especially devastating to hear that he took his own life,” Cranston wrote. He said he and Mitte had been texting each other a few weeks ago about possibly meeting for lunch. “I don’t know if that lunch would have changed his future,” Cranston wrote. “But I do know that I loved him, and thoroughly enjoyed being with him throughout the years on the series, and after the spotlight on Breaking Bad dimmed. I’ll miss you, son.“
He said Mitte “never – ever – allowed [his disability] to be an excuse for anything” during the show’s production. “He met the demanding shooting schedule head-on with great determination.”
The breakout role led to parts in movie and TV series. He starred in the 2021 drama Triumph, playing a high school senior who tries at extreme cost to be a wrestler despite having cerebral palsy. He also starred opposite Dove Cameron in 2024’s Love Me Dead and opposite Finn Wittrock in 2025’s Westhampton.
His most recent credit, per IMDb, was starring opposite Lin Yin in the indie pic Talking to Strangers. The drama had a red-carpet screening less than two weeks ago — September 30 — at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.
On the small screen, his credits included Switched at Birth, Now Apocalypse and The Guardians of Justice (Will Save You!). He also voiced a role in HCBS Final Rule: The Animated Series, a series of shorts designed to highlight changes to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Community Based Services for people with intellectual disabilities in California.
