Actor RJ Mitte, known to many as Walter White Jr. in hit drama Breaking Bad, has died at age 34 reportedly by suicide. Tributes from Breaking Bad leads Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul soon arrived, and have now been joined by countless online messages shared by players who knew Mitte as a lover of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and RuneScape.
In a July 2013 Comic-Con interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mitte was asked about his deep-cut obsessions. He explained that, “Before World of Warcraft had like 30 characters, I had level 85 on all the characters, along with maxed out all the levels on RuneScape. Every time a new video game would come out, I would have to beat it within six hours or I would never play it again.”
Though he’s best known for his acting and disability advocacy, this video alone earned Mitte lifelong notoriety among MMO fans. More than a decade later, that same video interview has received new comments from other players. “RIP from the Old School RuneScape community,” one user wrote just hours ago.
The World of Warcraft level cap was 85 back in the Cataclysm expansion of 2010, but Old School RuneScape wasn’t released until February 2013. Before that, we only had – and Mitte would have been playing – plain old RuneScape, now colloquially known as RuneScape 2. (Developer Jagex just announced RuneScape 4, and yet another World of Warcraft is in the works at Blizzard.) This means Mitte maxed out his characters in much more difficult versions of the games we have today, investing thousands of hours into those games.
So far, the Old School RuneScape community has been especially vocal in tributes to Mitte. Orbiting discussions of suicide, many players encouraged checking in on people and showing unconditional compassion.
“A lot of us use OSRS as an escape. He was one of us,” writes one Reddit user. “I know when I’ve been alone in life sometimes. Discord or Friendschat got me through it. Hold your brothers.”
“I work with people with disabilities, and this one just hurts extra fucking bad. I didn’t realize he was a certified gamer as well,” replies another user.
“I rewatched all of Breaking Bad grinding out 99 Runecrafting during my maxing grind a few years back. He will be missed,” says one player, referring to an infamously tedious RuneScape skill.
Other players shared stories and photos from meetups with Mitte. “Super down to earth, never acted like a ‘celebrity.’ Won’t forget it,” one fan says of meeting the actor at a South by Southwest convention.
The top response to a separate OSRS Reddit thread reads: “So sad, if anyone ever feels like this – please reach out to someone. You are worth it and you deserve to live, please don’t let a permanent solution be the answer to a short term thing. I have been there, there are brighter days ahead. Feel free to reach out if you ever need anything.”
For more support and resources, please visit the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (https://988lifeline.org/).