‘A beautiful soul has passed’: Baz Luhrmann shares a heartbreaking tribute to Romeo + Juliet choirboy Quindon Tarver following his shock death aged 38
Baz Luhrmann has shared a heartbreaking tribute to Romeo + Juliet actor Quindon Tarver following his shock death aged 38.
The Australian director, 58, shared unseen footage to Instagram of Tarver rehearsing his cover of Rozalla’s Everybody’s Free on the set of the 1996 film on Wednesday.
‘A beautiful soul has passed, my thoughts are with Quindon Tarver’s family and loved ones,’ he wrote.
‘A beautiful soul has passed’: Baz Luhrmann (pictured) has shared a heartbreaking tribute to Romeo + Juliet choirboy Quindon Tarver following his shock death aged 38
Tarver, whose rendition of Everybody’s Free and When Doves Cry captured the hearts of millions in the 1996 film, died in a car crash in Texas last week. He was 38.
Tarver’s family confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was in an accident early Friday morning in Dallas.
‘He had an accident—all we know is he had a wreck, crashed into a wall somewhere on George Bush [Turnpike],’ Tarver’s uncle, Willie, said.
No other information was immediately available.
Tribute: The Australian director, 58, shared unseen footage to Instagram of Tarver (pictured) rehearsing his cover of Rozalla’s Everybody’s Free on the set of the 1996 film on Wednesday
Tarver played a choirboy in Baz Luhrmann’s remake of Shakespeare classic, Romeo + Juliet, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo.
Back in 1995, Tarver had been signed to Virgin Records and was recording a debut album when he received a call from a music supervisor he had met on a previous audition.
‘They needed a kid to sing that part in the movie, and she remembered me, and her people reached out to my people, and I went and auditioned, and I got the part,’ Tarver recalled in a 2016 interview with Cosmopolitan.
Tarver was just 12 at the time, and totally wowed them with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s His Eye Is on the Sparrow.
Tarver was flown to Mexico City for the filming in a grand cathedral, where he was perched in the front of a choir on a balcony and took the lead on the song.
Tragic: Tarver (pictured),whose rendition of Everybody’s Free and When Doves Cry captured the hearts of millions in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, died in a car crash in Texas last week
His music career stalled after he spoke publicly about being sexually abused by an industry figure.
Tarver, who was vocal about being abused in the music industry, shared in a December 2020 Instagram post: ‘I thought it was real between us all…. it was all apart of a motive & agenda! Young artists breaking into the industry be aware of wolves in sheeps clothing!!’
According to the Daily Beast, Tarver also struggled with addiction for some time before trying to make a comeback.
Tarver released the song Stand Our Ground a year after his first cousin Darius Tarver was shot dead by police officers on January 21, 2020.
Tarver’s family revealed he was in an accident early Friday morning in Dallas along the George Bush Turnpike. Tarver (right, foreground) is seen when he was a young boy in the film Romeo + Juliet