R.I.P.: Chris Gauthier of Freddy vs. Jason, Eureka, and Once Upon a Time has passed away at 48

The slasher mash-up Freddy vs. Jason just celebrated its 20th anniversary six months ago, and now we have some very sad news to share about one of its cast members: Chris Gauthier, who played the Jason victim Shack in the film, has passed away at the age of 48. Variety reports that Gauthier passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from “an unspecified short illness”.

In addition to Freddy vs. Jason, where his character was felled by a flaming machete thrown by Jason during the cornfield rave sequence, Gauthier’s acting credits included 40 Days and 40 Nights, Insomnia, Agent Cody Banks, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Dead Like Me, Riding the Bullet, Stargate: Atlantis, Masters of Horror (where he had a role in John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns), The Butterfly Effect 2, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Supernatural, Space Buddies, Watchmen, Harper’s Island, Sanctuary, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Iron Golem, Smallville, Continuum, Eureka, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, Hitched for the Holidays, Nearlyweds, Health Nutz, The Wedding Chapel, After All These Years, Psych, A Fairly Odd Summer, iZombie; Signed, Sealed, Delivered; Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From the Heart; Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again; Hearts of Spring, Christmas Cookies, Monster Trucks, S.W.A.T.: Under Siege, When Calls the Heart, Once Upon a Time, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Christmas House, The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls, Charmed, Three Wise Men and a Baby, Joe Pickett, Ms. Christmas Comes to Town, and more. In just 24 years, he managed to rack up over 105 credits.

TriStar Appearances’ Chad Colvin had this to say about Gauthier’s passing: “When his wife reached out to me yesterday with the news, I wept tears of disbelief for hours. It’s taken me til now to fully mentally and emotionally steel myself to write this. Chris was the literal textbook definition of a character actor. You may not have known his name but you knew his face, you knew his voice, and you knew that if he was onscreen, you were in for a helluva ride. Whether he was standing toe-to-toe against Clark Kent on ‘Smallville’ as the Toyman, tormenting Dean on ‘Supernatural,’ on deck with Hook as Smee in ‘Once Upon a Time’ or in guest roles in the countless other productions he was in, he ALWAYS gave it his all when the camera was rolling.“

Gauthier is survived by his wife and children. Our sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.