Late on Monday evening, the news broke of the death of "MythBusters" co-host and robotics expert Grant Imahara. Reports indicate that the effects and engineering legend passed due to a brain aneurysm. Imahara was 49 years old.
Before his time on "MythBusters", Imahara, a graduate of the University of Southern California, worked as a visual effects artist. Working for LucasFilm’s Industrial Light and Magic for nine years, Imahara’s work included The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and Van Helsing. His greatest cinematic claim to fame may be as the artist in charge of updating the R2-D2 models used in the aforementioned Star Wars films.
Beginning in 2005, Imahara was the third person, alongside Kari Byron and Tori Belleci, of the build crew on "MythBusters". Series co-host Jamie Hyneman extended the invitation to Imahara, and was recommended by series associate producer and Imahara’s former ILM colleague Linda Wolkovitch. The build crew often tested the plausibility of scenes from various films and TV series. Including the sporadic appearances after the build crew’s departure in 2014, Imahara is credited with 206 episodes.
The build crew had a one-season run with their own series, Netflix’s "White Rabbit Project", in 2016. Imahara was also involved with the long-running robot combat series "BattleBots", which he also judged in the show’s eighth season. He also portrayed Mr. Sulu in the web series Star Trek Continues, a role which would notch Imahara a Geekie Award in 2014, as well as a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Treklanta Independent Star Trek Fan Film Awards.
"MythBusters" co-host Adam Savage had this to say about Imahara’s passing on his Facebook page:
"I’m at a loss. No words. I’ve been part of two big families with Grant Imahara over the last 22 years. Grant was a truly brilliant engineer, artist and performer, but also just such a generous, easygoing, and gentle PERSON. Working with Grant was so much fun. I’ll miss my friend."