While many may not remember the actor appearing as Carol Danvers’ father, Joseph Danvers, in 2019’s Captain Marvel, it is hard to forget Kenneth Mitchell’s Joshua in Nancy Drew, his four different roles in Star Trek: Discovery, him as Eric Green in Jericho, and so many more memorable characters that came to life thanks to him. Sadly, his wonderful career and loving family are all we have left to remember Mitchell as he passed away on Feb. 24, 2024, at the age of 49.
His family, including his wife actress Susan May Pratt and two children, has shared the tragic news with The Hollywood Reporter in their statement, revealing that the Switched at Birth star passed away in Los Angeles after suffering from complications of ALS.
“Kenny was the keeper of countless enduring friendships. Like a massive star exploding with kindness, pureness, and a particular brand of silly, you were pulled right into his orbit. Once captured, Kenny could bathe you in positivity, compassion, thoughtfulness, and hilarity, and make you feel so loved.”
Kenneth was a giver, a listener, a sentimental and an excellent observer of his surroundings,” his family further added. “One of his most endearing qualities as a friend is that Kenny loved to watch others shine. He was a conductor of connecting friends together and thoroughly enjoyed prompting a good story …and boy oh boy did he love to laugh. He absolutely loved to laugh.”
What is ALS disease and what are its symptoms?
It was in 2018 that Mitchell first discovered that he had ALS i.e., Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or as it is more infamously known as – Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after the renowned basketball player, Henry Louis Gehrig, who was first diagnosed with it at the age of 36 and died at 38.
As described by Johns Hopkins Medicine, ALS is a “fatal type of motor neuron disease” that has no cure. It has a debilitating effect on nerves and muscles, where the nerve cells in the spinal cord and the brain degenerate at a progressive rate. It starts with something as small as weakness in a limb, trouble swallowing, or slurring while talking and eventually escalates to majorly hampering the functionality of limbs, often leading to paralysis, inability to speak properly, laughing or crying uncontrollably for certain periods, weakened motor control, etc.
In an interview with People in 2020, Mitchell shared how surreal it felt to discover that he has ALS.
“That’s what it felt like, like I was watching that scene where someone is being told that they have a terminal illness. It was just a complete disbelief, a shock.”
The condition led Mitchell to use a wheelchair since October 2019 and used it in the shows he appeared post that, playing roles specifically created for him, like FBI Agent Joe in The Old Man and Aurellio in Star Trek: Discovery.
