RJ Mitte’s Most Memorable Roles Beyond 'Breaking Bad'

RJ Mitte, the 34-year-old actor best known for playing Walter White Jr in the legendary Breaking Bad, tragically took his own life on 12 October. After the show skyrocketed him to fame, he became one of those rare actors who was truly committed to using his platform for the better: as a young actor with cerebral palsy, he worked extensively with organisations raising awareness of the condition and changing the way that it was represented on the screen.

Mitte became an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children's, a network of non-profit pediatric facilities across the United States, and later set up his own organisation: The Mitte Foundation, seeking to disrupt stereotypes about people with cerebral palsy and promote a greater representation for people with disabilities.

As well as being a truly good man and a dedicated activist, Mitte was an excellent actor, as anyone who's seen Breaking Bad would be able to tell you. After the show ended, he took on some more roles in a range of movies, spanning all genres—read on to see our pick of the very best films Mitte starred in.

In this comedy-drama, Mitte plays an isolated young man with cerebral palsy who befriends a bartender at a comedy night, leading to the two being drawn into the broader world of stand-up comedy. It's sweet, it's heartwarming and, above all, it's very funny, with brilliant performances from Mitte and his co-lead Philippa Northeast.

In Westhampton, Mitte plays Fitz, a cheery bartender who serves some lightness in an otherwise pretty heavy film. Starring Finn Wittrock, Westhampton tells the story of a filmmaker haunted by an accident that killed his high-school girlfriend, who turns the accident into a semi-autobiographical film as a way of processing his grief and guilt. Throughout the film, we get to see the real version of events and the fictionalised version, and it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. It's a heavy, complex watch, with a bittersweet, dry sense of humour to balance it all out.

This crime drama follows the stories of two family men, a cleaning man working in a luxury resort and a wealthier man spending a week there with his wife and son, as they both realise that the administration behind the resort is concealing something much more sinister. Mitte plays Tom, the mysterious, elusive and ominous American manager of the resort. It's an arty thriller with a sharp sense of humour and an undercurrent of paranoia that keeps you on your toes.

Set entirely within the confines of a single pub, The Oak Room is a claustrophobic thriller that follows a young drifter (played by Mitte) who returns to a blue-collar bar in his hometown, but his comeback causes a dark spiral of lies, mistaken identity and a whole lot of violence. Ir's moody, atmospheric and gradual in its build-up, but that payoff is well worth the wait.

This story originally appeared on Esquire.com/uk.