Shiloh Actor Blake Heron Dies At 35

Blake Heron, the actor who gained fame as a teenager during the 1990s, has died, Variety reports. He was just 35 years old. 

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner and his former manager confirmed Heron's death, explaining that Heron was found unresponsive at his La Crescenta, California home in the morning hours of Friday, September 8. Paramedics pronounced Heron dead at the scene, though his exact cause of death hasn't yet been determined.  His cause of death has not been determined yet.

The friend who discovered Heron relayed to authorities that Heron had been sick with the flu for the past few days. It's unknown whether that illness played any factor in Heron's passing. 

A native of Sherman Oaks, California, Heron made his silver screen debut in the 1995 Disney flick Tom and Huck, in which he played Ben Rodgers. That same year, he popped up in a television series called Reality Check, playing Bud McNeight. 1996 saw Heron starring in the film he's perhaps most known for: the Warner Bros. family drama Shiloh, portraying Marty Preston, "a small-town Southern boy, must rescue a young beagle from abusive owner and recluse Judd Travers (Scott Wilson)." Michael Moriarty and Ann Dowd co-starred in the film, which is based on the Phyllis Reynolds Naylor novel by the same name.

From there, Heron went on to appear in several television movies in mid-1990s. Such credits include Trilogy of Terror II and Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher. He then popped up in the HBO movie Cheaters at the turn of the century, later landing roles on television series like Boston Public, Family Law, and The Guardian. In 2002, Heron played Specialist Galen Bungum in Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers, and had a part in the 2004 romantic drama Dandelion. 

More recently, Heron appeared in A Thousand Junkies, which premiered in April of this year.

Funeral services for Heron are currently pending. Our thoughts are with his friends and family during this difficult time.