Updated Oct. 12, 2026, 11:35 p.m. ET
RJ Mitte‘s “Breaking Bad” costars have paid tribute to the actor and advocate for disability representation, who died at 34.
After news of Mitte’s death broke on Oct. 12, actors Aaron Paul and Dean Norris, who played Jesse Pinkman and Hank Schrader, respectively, shared their heartbreak in tributes to their “Breaking Bad” costar.
“I am at a loss. I am heartbroken over this news. RJ, I love you my friend. You will be missed,” Paul said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “And to whoever happens to be reading this, please know you are loved, and you are not alone. Always remember that.”
Schrader, whose character was the uncle to Mitte’s Walter White Jr., took to X and shared: “Oh my God! Was working just found out about RJ. I am heartbroken.
“Though RJ didn’t play my TV son, I always looked out for him as a young kid on set. He was a sweetheart of a young man and will be greatly missed,” he continued. “This is so heartbreaking, I can’t believe it. Thinking of him and his family.”
Though Mitte had roles in various TV shows such as ABC Family’s “Switched at Birth,” Netflix’s “The Guardians of Justice” and Starz’s “Now Apocalypse,” he was best known for his role on the Emmy-winning AMC series “Breaking Bad.”
Mitte’s Walt Jr. was the bullied but brilliant son of Cranston‘s Walter White and Anna Gunn‘s Skyler White. The five-season show, which was recently crowned the top show of the 21st century, followed Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher with a terminal illness who scales a crystal meth empire with the help of Paul’s Jesse Pinkman.
Bryan Cranston shares ‘deep despair’ over RJ Mitte’s death
Hours after Mitte’s death, Cranston shared in an Instagram post that he was “in deep despair as I write this tonight.”
“RJ Mitte, my sweet son on ‘Breaking Bad’ has died. I met him when he was only 14 years old when he was cast as Walter White Jr., a part he played with such joy and enthusiasm,” Cranston wrote alongside a photo of the two from the Season 1 premiere in 2008.
“Born with cerebral palsy, he never – ever – allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything. He met the demanding shooting schedule head-on with great determination,” Cranston added. “Always listening to the advice that his TV parents (Anna Gunn and myself) gave him – but being a teenager, sometimes mischievously ignoring the counsel in order to learn the hard way… He was one of the stars of a hit TV show – but still a kid.”
The cast started filming the AMC show in February 2007, and ” little by little we watched him grow into a really fine actor,” he wrote.
“He parlayed his experience on the show to be a vocal advocate for performers with disabilities and was the head of a philanthropic organization with a focus on helping the disabled community,” the actor continued. “All that promise and potential now is such a loss.”
Cranston revealed that only a few weeks ago they were making plans to have lunch and mused, “I don’t know if that lunch would have changed his future.”
“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…” his tribute concluded. “I’ll miss you, son.”
RJ Mitte’s cerebral palsy advocacy in ‘Breaking Bad,’ other roles
Mitte often played characters with cerebral palsy, from a high school student aspiring to be a wrestler in the 2021 film “Triumph” to a loner who sparks an unlikely friendship in the newly released film “Talking to Strangers.” His other recent film projects include “Love Me Dead,” in which he starred opposite Dove Cameron; 2025’s “Westhampton,” the 2023 horror film “The Unseen,” and 2020 thriller “The Oak Room.”
Walt Jr.’s cerebral palsy diagnosis was part of the original “Breaking Bad” script, Mitte has said. He told Vice in 2016 that “the breakdown for the character was: dark hair, big eyebrows and mild cerebral palsy,” adding: “And that was my life! Except for the methamphetamine.”
The role helped launch Mitte’s career and gave him a platform to raise awareness of the brain disorder. Mitte was an honorary trustee of United Cerebral Palsy and president of the Mitte Foundation.
“People are hungry for realism, and they’re hungry to see characters like them,” Mitte said. “And I think that’s what was really important with ‘Breaking Bad’ is it showed characters that everyone can relate to.”
(This story has been updated to include new information.)
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