“Everyone is raising the bar. Why not me?”: RJ Mitte, 1992–2006

It is a testament to RJ Mitte’s performance, as well as Breaking Bad’s stellar writing, that Walter White, Jr. is remembered more as ‘the teenager who ate a lot of breakfast,’ instead of ‘the teenager on crutches.’

There aren’t many characters with disabilities, played by actors with disabilities, who get more than a brief appearance or two onscreen, and fewer still who become famous as actors with disabilities (Michael J. Fox, for example, was famous long before his Parkinson’s diagnosis was public or visible). Fewer still get remembered as characters in their own right rather than as symbols of their disability or the focus of Very Special Episodes. And, of course, many of those actors never get anything resembling steady work. (Micah Fowler, another actor with cerebral palsy, starred in Speechless on ABC eight years after Breaking Bad debuted; he has only a handful of credits on IMDb.) Mitte managed to beat those odds, with his filmography ranging from indie films like The Oak Room and Triumph to a recurring role on Switched at Birth. Variety reported that he had several projects in production and pre-production at the time of his death.

Mitte was born in 1992 in Jackson, Mississippi; he suffered brain damage at birth and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at three. He moved with his mother and sister to Los Angeles as a teenager to support his sister’s acting career and had two brief sitcom appearances¹ before landing the role of Walt Jr. on Breaking Bad. He spent the bulk of his high school years on that show, doing schoolwork on set and graduating early.

As Walt Jr. (or “Flynn,” depending on how strong his loyalty to his father was at the time), Mitte had to play a character more physically disabled than he was. “It was very hard to regress,” he told AMC. “I had to stay up real late so I could learn to blur my speech more. I had to learn how to use crutches so it didn’t look like I’m faking walking. I didn’t want to look like just another faker because I really have it.”

Mitte was a consistent and outspoken advocate for disability rights and representation. In addition to his work with his family’s foundation, the Mitte Foundation, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s (where he had received medical care as a child). He was also active in Brownsville, Texas, where his grandparents had been prominent supporters of the arts. “RJ’s advocacy for inclusion and accessibility reflected the very heart of our mission: creating a cultural community where differences are celebrated, barriers are removed, and the arts belong to everyone,” Reba Cardenas McNair, the chair of the Mitte Cultural District Board of Directors, said in a statement.

“Disability is part of my story, but it doesn’t define my story,” he told Mediaplanet site Future of Personal Health. “I want young people, disabled or not, to know their dreams are valid, their voices matter, and there is always a place for them in this world.”

Call 988 in the US and Canada for immediate mental health support. International resources can be found at Lifeline International. You belong here and we want to keep you around.

1. For brief appearances, an actor could do worse, though: his earliest credits are Everybody Hates Chris and Hannah Montana. ↩︎