Actor Raphael Coleman, a child star in the 2005 film “Nanny McPhee" who later became a climate change activist, died Friday. He was 25.
Coleman starred with Emma Thompson and Colin Firth in “Nanny McPhee" when he was 10, playing the role of Eric Brown. He died after collapsing during a run, Variety reported.
Coleman’s mother, Liz Jensen, confirmed her son’s death on Twitter.
Coleman’s stepfather, Carsten Jensen, said on Facebook the actor did not have any health issues. He also said Coleman originally wanted to be a scientist, the BBC reported.
“He died doing what he loved, working for the noblest cause of all,” Jensen wrote.
“As a child, he was old-wise, extremely literate and loved to lecture adults with his always astonishing knowledge,” Carsten Jensen wrote.
“Not to blow up something, as his figure in Nanny McPhee, but to save the planet.”
Coleman appeared in two other films: “It’s Alive” and “The Fourth Kind” in 2009. He studied zoology at the University of Manchester before becoming an activist, Variety reported. He worked with Extinction Rebellion, an environmentalist group dedicated to wildlife conservation.
On his website, Coleman called himself “a twenty-something Zoology graduate traveling the world on a shoestring budget, working with wildlife and exploring wildernesses."
Actress Eliza Bennett, who also had a role in “Nanny McPhee,” said on Twitter she was heartbroken.