Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

‘Star Trek’ Actor’s Family Reaches Settlement With Fiat Chrysler After 2016 Killing

The parents of treasured Jewish actor Anton Yelchin, who died in a horrific accident in 2016, have reached a settlement with the company that produced the car that killed him.

Yelchin, who was best known for his leading role in the new “Star Trek” movies, was killed in 2016 when his 2015 Grand Cherokee Jeep Summit California Edition rolled backwards, crushing him between the car and a fence. Just weeks after the 27 year-old actor’s death, his family sued the Fiat Chrysler company, citing “defective design and/or manufacture.” Jeep models similar to the one that killed Yelchin had been recalled. The Yelchin lawsuit also suggested that the model of car Yelchin drove did not have “sufficient rollaway prevention features as well as sufficient warning features.” Fiat Chrysler announced in a statement on Thursday that the company has settled with the Yelchin family for an undisclosed quantity.

Yelchin, whose understated charisma sparkled in movies like “Charlie Bartlett” and “Like Crazy,” was born to a pair figure skating couple in Leningrad who fled the Soviet Union due to anti-Semitic oppression in 1989. They arrived in the US as refugees when their son was six months old. Yelchin is currently appearing posthumously in movie theaters in “Thoroughbreds”; you can read Becky Scott’s review of his excellent final performance here. He will be remembered for his quiet charm and dazzling talent.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.