LOVING MEMORY OF PAUL WALKER

Paul Walker was an American actor born on September 12, 1973, in Glendale, California. His mother, Cheryl, was a fashion model, and his father, Paul William Walker III, was a sewer contractor and former amateur boxer who was a two-time Golden Gloves champion. Walker's grandfather, William, had a short-lived boxing career as "Irish" Billy Walker in the 1960s while driving another aced factory car for Ford.

Raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Walker had four younger siblings: Aimee, Ashley, Caleb, and Cody. He spent most of his early life in the Sunland neighborhood of Los Angeles and graduated from Village Christian School in 1991. Walker later attended several community colleges in Southern California, majoring in marine biology.

He was best known for his role as Brian O'Connor in the Fast and Furious franchise. Walker began his career as a child actor in the 1980s and gained recognition in the 1990s after appearing on the television soap opera The Young and the Restless; He won acclaim for his performances in the 1999 teen comedy She's All That and the comedy-drama Varsity Blues and rose to international fame in 2001 with his role in The Fast and the Furious.

Walker became an action star in 2001, starring in the commercially successful road thriller Joy Ride. He followed this up with box office disappointments Into the Blue in 2005 and Running Scared in 2006, although he was recognized for his performance in the survival drama Eight Below and his portrayal of Hank Hansen in 2006's Flags of Our Fathers. Walker mostly appeared in low-budget action films, but in 2010 starred in the commercially successful heist film Takers.

He lived in Santa Barbara with his dogs. He and one-time girlfriend Rebecca Soteros had a daughter, Meadow Rain Walker, who lived with her mother in Hawaii for 13 years before moving to California to live with Walker in 2011.

His godfather Vin Diesel, with whom Walker shares a close bond; Diesel nicknamed him "Pablo", while Walker's mother described her son as Diesel's "other half". Walker was close friends with Fast and Furious co-star Tyrese Gibson.

He held a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo "Franchinha" Miller of Paragon Jiu-Jitsu and was posthumously awarded a black belt by Miller. Walker co-founded the humanitarian aid nonprofit Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW) with financial advisor Roger Rodas in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He traveled to many disaster-affected areas for relief till his death.

Walker has an interest in marine biology and in 2006 joined the Board of Directors of the Billfish Foundation. He fulfilled a lifelong dream by starring in the National Geographic Channel series Expedition Great White, which premiered in June 2010. Walker caught and tagged seven great white sharks off the coast of Mexico over 11 days. The expedition, led by Chris Fisher, founder and CEO of Fisher Productions, and Brett McBride and Michael Daumier of the Institute of Marine Conservation Sciences, took measurements, collected DNA samples and attached real-time satellite tags to great white sharks to study migration patterns over a five-year period, particularly those related to mating and birth.

A car enthusiast, Walker competed in the Redline Time Attack Racing Series, where he participated in the AE Performance team driving a BMW E92 M3. His car is sponsored by Etnies, Brembo Brakes, Ohlins, Volk, OS Giken, Hankook, Gintani and Reach Out Worldwide. Walker was preparing for an auto show before his death. Walker owned Always Evolving, a high-end automotive performance shop in Valencia, where Rodas, a pro-am racer, served as CEO.

Walker also had a large car collection of 30 cars, part of which he shared with Rodas. Twenty-one vehicles owned by Walker sold for $2.33 million at the annual car auction in Arizona in January 2020.

30 November 2013 at 3.30 PM. Walker and Roger Rodas left for Walker's charity Reach Out Worldwide to hold an event for victims of Typhoon Haiyan, with Rodas driving his 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. The car was driving down Hercules Street in Valencia, a suburb of Santa Clarita, California when it crashed into a concrete lamp post and two trees and caught fire. Rodas died of multiple trauma and Walker died of the combined effects of trauma and burns. Both their bodies were charred beyond recognition.

The curve where Walker and Rodas died is a popular spot for drifting cars. No alcohol or other drugs were found in the man's system, and neither mechanical failure nor road conditions played a role. Police found no evidence of drag racing. The investigation revealed that the speed of the car and the age of the tires were the reasons for the accident. At the time of his death, Walker had not completed filming Furious 7 in 2015; it was released after rewrites and stand-ins, including his brothers Cody and Caleb, both of whom filled in for Walker, while the song "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth was commissioned as a tribute.

Many friends and movie stars paid tribute to Walker on social media. His body was cremated and his ashes were buried in a non-denominational ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. His life was later chronicled in the documentary I Am Paul Walker, released on 11 August 2018. In December 2014, Walker's father filed a wrongful death claim against Rodas' estate, seeking a "proportionate share" of the proceeds of a fleet of vehicles jointly owned by Walker and Rodas.

In September 2015, Walker's daughter filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Porsche, claiming that the Porsche Carrera GT had several design flaws, including a history of instability and that its seat belt fitment could damage it on impact. However, Porsche claims no wrongdoing and accuses Walker: "He was clearly and publicly aware of the dangers, hazards and he decided to conduct himself in such a way as to expose himself to such dangers, hazards, and risks. He calculated all the risks involved in using the vehicle." Walker's father and daughter reached a special out-of-court settlement with Porsche.

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