Former Child Actor Dead at 33: RIP to Blake Garrett

Former child actor Blake Garrett, best known for his role in How to Eat Fried Worms, died on Sunday. He was 33.

Blake’s mother, Carol Garrett, confirmed her son’s passing to TMZ on Monday, saying that Blake’s death was due to unknown causes. The family is currently awaiting the results of an autopsy to learn the official cause of death.

Carol revealed that Blake, who had been living in Tulsa, Okla., for the last three years, had gone to the emergency room last week for intense pain and had later been diagnosed with shingles.

Carol said that her son, who had gotten sober in recent years and was back on a good track, may have self-medicated to cope with the pain, which could be connected to his death.

Blake made his debut in the 2004 live show Barney’s Colorful World, Live!, with which he toured for 18 months, but found his first big screen role in 2006’s How to Eat Fried Worms.

The comedy, based on the 1973 children’s book of the same name by Thomas Rockwell, follows new kid Billy (Luke Benward) as he inadvertently finds himself the victim of a bully named Joe (Adam Hicks) and finds himself having to eat 10 worms in a single day or face the consequences. Blake played one of Joe’s “toaders,” a boy named Plug.

Blake told The Oklahoman in 2006 that while he might play a “henchman” to the movie’s bully, “everybody got along on the set.”

The child actor recalled a special memory from behind the scenes, getting to “have first pick” from the bicycles on set as one of the few kids who already knew how to ride one.

“There was one scene where we were riding on a gravel road and got to slide to a stop. The guys who could ride worked on that scene,” he said at the time. “They had a camera on the ground, and in one scene I slid and gravel hit the camera. They really liked that shot, and that’s the one they used in the movie.”

Following the release of the film, Blake and his co-stars won Best Young Ensemble in a Feature Film from the Young Artist Awards in 2007.