The 27-year-old actor died at 1 a.m. on Sunday after his body was found by his friends trapped between his car, which was still in neutral, and a wall in his driveway. Yelchin, who hailed from the former Soviet Union, had amassed an impressive body of work since his TV debut on ER. Here are his greatest hits.
Yelchin's breakout movie role came as an 11-year-old who experiences a transformative summer under the guidance of an eccentric old man, played by Anthony Hopkins. Yelchin won a Young Artist Award for his magnetic performance.
Yelchin made several noteworthy TV appearances, including his 2000 screen debut on ER, but perhaps his best came as Stewart, Cheryl David's cousin and a self-described magician who runs afoul of Larry, in the 2004 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm titled "The Blind Date."
In this based-on-a-true-story tale, Yelchin leapt off the screen as Zack Mazursky, the younger brother of a Jewish neo-Nazi who finds himself kidnapped by a group of privileged SoCal thugs, led by Emile Hirsch's Johnny Truelove.
Yelchin was an absolute tour de force as the titular high schooler who begins dealing prescription drugs to (and counseling) his classmates. Here, Yelchin sang, danced, and smiled his way to one of his most winning performances, even blowing a certain actor by the name of Robert Downey Jr. right off the screen.
The actor's first big blockbuster was this J.J. Abrams reboot, with Yelchin stepping into the role of Pavel Chekov, a Russian officer aboard the USS Enterprise. Playing Chekov was a tribute to Yelchin's roots, as the actor was born in the Soviet Union before escaping with his family at the age of 6.
In this underrated 3-D remake, Yelchin plays Charley Brewster, a horror movie geek who must spring to action when he discovers that his new neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell), is a vampire. Here, the scrawny actor proved that he could play action-hero, too.
Drake Doremus's romantic saga was the talk of Sundance, and though it didn't become the indie hit everyone thought it would, introduced three up and coming stars to viewers: Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, and of course, Anton Yelchin as the budding architect who must choose between them.
Yelchin reprised his role as Chekov in J.J. Abrams' supercharged sequel, which brought Benedict Cumberbatch onboard as the USS Enterprise crew's nemesis: Khan.
In Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room, one of the very best films of 2016 (so far), Yelchin plays Pat, the lead singer of a punk bad that finds itself trapped in a venue in the remote Pacific Northwest and surrounded by Nazis trying to kill them. Yelchin possessed the uncanny ability to make you want to root for him, and here you're praying that he stays alive.
