Here is a tragic article regarding Mark's death:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6295711/han-solo-actor-alden-ehrenreich-saw-his-uncle-stab-his-father-to-death-at-the-age-of-8/
In Memory
Mark Ehrenreich
Here is a tragic article regarding Mark's death:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6295711/han-solo-actor-alden-ehrenreich-saw-his-uncle-stab-his-father-to-death-at-the-age-of-8/
Cheryl Moore (Miller)
ON paper, privately educated LA rich kid Alden Ehrenreich does not appear to have the troubled past needed to get into the mindset of Star Wars “space pirate” Han Solo.
The decision to cast the relatively unknown 28-year-old as the younger version of Harrison Ford’s famous rogue has been questioned for the best part of two years — despite him coming recommended by Steven Spielberg.
He had the handsome looks but there were rumours producers had to call in an acting coach to steer him though filming.
But following last night’s premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story in Cannes, The Sun can reveal that Alden — described by Harrison as “spectacular” in the film — is not the cosseted Californian he appears to be and has been hiding a family tragedy.
When he was aged just eight, Alden went with dad Mark to pick up his mentally ill uncle Edward for what should have been a happy festive celebration.
They never made it to the family Hanukkah gathering in December 1997, because on tree-lined Magnolia Avenue in Long Beach, LA, Edward suddenly pulled out a kitchen knife.
Encouraged by voices telling him to kill, brought on by years of drug abuse, he stabbed his brother.
Bleeding badly, accountant Mark drove a few hundred yards to a petrol station, using his last reserves of energy to make a frantic 911 call.
His wounds were too severe for Alden’s dad to be saved and he died in hospital, aged 43.
It was a violent end that scarred the Ehrenreich family.
Last night, Alden’s uncle Nicholas Benedict, 71, who was married to Mark and Edward’s sister Ava, said: “That must have been very traumatising for such a young boy.
“The last time I saw Alden was at the funeral for Mark, they had a get together at the house. It’s an incredibly tragic story.
“When Edward was younger he was heavily into LSD. He went overboard and freaked out — it screwed him up.
“He was in a halfway house the whole time I was married to Ava.”
Mark had gone to collect Edward from the halfway house.
Actor Nicholas, who has appeared in TV shows including The Dukes Of Hazzard, continued: “He was crazy, he had schizophrenia, didn’t take his meds, then killed his brother.
“Apparently Edward was waiting for him with a kitchen knife.
“The devil told him to kill Mark or something like that. He was having hallucinations.”
Edward, aged 47 at the time of the stabbing, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and waived the right to a jury trial.
The prosecution and judge accepted he was not fit to be cross-examined in court, and he was sent to a secure mental health institution where he is believed to have died in 2005.
Understandably, it is a part of Alden’s past that he has been reluctant to speak about publicly.
His mother Sari, an interior designer, did a remarkable job in giving her only child the stable upbringing he needed after a turbulent start to life.
She married Hollywood dentist Harry Aronowitz, and they brought Alden up in the very safe and wealthy area of Pacific Palisades.
Alden credited his mum as the one who “always cultivated my imagination from the time I was very little”.
Supporting his growing interest in film, they paid for Alden, who was named after Field Of Dreams director Phil Alden Robinson, to attend the £28,000-a-year Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences.
Former pupils of the celebrity school in Santa Monica include Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Jack Black, Jonah Hill and Zooey Deschanel.
It was his late father’s work as an accountant for the biggest mover and shaker in Hollywood — director Steven Spielberg — that was to lead to Alden’s first break.
Steven was at a bat mitzvah when he saw a madcap video the then 14-year-old Alden had made for his friend’s coming of age ceremony.
It featured him pretending to break into her house and try on her clothes.
The Oscar-winning director was so impressed that he put out the word about the youngster, leading to Alden winning small roles in TV shows CSI and Supernatural. It was a good job Alden did not listen to his parents ahead of the party.
He once recalled: “We showed the video to our parents beforehand — ‘We’re gonna play this at her bat mitzvah’ — and they were like, ‘You look like an idiot in this. I don’t think you should really do that.’ We didn’t care.”
From there he secured a lead role in 2009’s Tetro, directed by The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola, and then The Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! two years ago.
Just two months after Coen comedy came out, it was announced Alden had beaten Brit Taron Egerton and 1,600 others to the coveted role of intergalactic smuggler Solo.
It did not take long for rumours to spread that the film, about the origins of the beloved Star Wars character, was in trouble.
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were ditched owing to Disney’s concerns about their freewheeling style, and there were suggestions Alden had complained about their approach.
It was also said that the film’s producers had drafted in an acting coach to help the relatively inexperienced actor.
In a recent interview Alden denied both claims, saying it was “not at all” true that he opposed the original directors and insisted the coach was just “part of conversations that happened for a couple weeks at one point”.
Cheryl Moore (Miller)
Cheryl Moore (Miller)
I recognize Mark's face, but did not know him. I feel sad about what happened, and I relate to Mark since my 40yo schizophrenic niece refused meds and died in a fire, and my schizophrenic brother-in-law refuses meds and travels the country in and out of trouble. My heart goes out to Mark's son.