Pe­ter Ray Blood

Renowned Trinidad-born ac­tor Sul­li­van Walk­er, 68, died on Car­ni­val Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 20, suc­cumb­ing to a mas­sive heart at­tack in Cal­i­for­nia, USA. Orig­i­nal­ly from the hills of Suc­cess Vil­lage, Laven­tille, Walk­er's ca­reer be­gan at age nine and he con­tin­ued to soar un­til land­ing a plum role as the grand­fa­ther of Cur­tis "50 Cent" Jack­son two years ago in the hit film Get Rich or Die Try­ing. He has al­so shared the screen with Tom Cruise.

The fa­ther of one child, Walk­er, 68, re­turned home an­nu­al­ly to be part of Car­ni­val. Walk­er's big break came in 1986 while he was do­ing a play, A Doll's House, in At­lanta. The cast­ing of the pop­u­lar Bill Cos­by Show called and of­fered him a job. One year lat­er, the cast­ing called again and of­fered Walk­er a role as a cab dri­ver on a se­ries, Where I Live, which aired on ABC tele­vi­sion.

In a T&T Guardian in­ter­view Walk­er said that role led to a job with Steven Spiel­berg when he act­ed in an­oth­er se­ries-Earth Two-which al­so gave him the op­por­tu­ni­ty to act with Tom Cruise in the hit film The Firm. Ac­cord­ing to a fam­i­ly mem­ber, Walk­er's body is be­ing flown to New York this week and will be flown to Trinidad for his fu­ner­al.