Sir Mark Rylance has gone to the United States to ‘grieve’ his younger brother, who died in a horrific bike accident in California, while friends and family raised $130,000 (£110,000) for the actor’s bereaved niece to attend college this autumn, according to MailOnline.
Jonathan Waters, a wine expert, was cycling late one evening in Oakland when he was hit by an approaching vehicle, sustaining fatal head injuries.
Despite being brought to the hospital, the 60-year-old, fondly known as ‘Jonno’ by friends and family, died the next morning.
Hazel, his only child, was born to him and her mother, Kate Razo. Their child is set to attend art college, and a charity page set up to ‘support her’ financially following her father’s death has already raised $130,000.
Sir Mark, 62, has suffered yet another devastating loss, following the death of one of his two stepdaughters in 2012 from a severe brain haemorrhage. Nataasha van Kampen, a talented filmmaker, died on a trip from New York to London when she was only 28 years old.
Sir Mark, 62, will attend a memorial service, followed by a celebration of his brother’s life at a winery in California, instead of performing his West End play Jerusalem this weekend.
‘I am so sorry to tell you that on the 28th of May, my darling brother Jonathan Waters was knocked off his bicycle and tragically died of his injuries,’ the Oscar winner said in a statement to followers. I’ll have to miss three performances of Jerusalem’ in order to attend his funeral in California.
‘I hope you understand my need to grieve my darling brother, and thank you for your support at this difficult time,’ he continued. I hope you will be able to see another Jerusalem performance.’
Sir Mark has two siblings, Susannah and Jonathan, both of whom are Kent natives. In the 1980s, the actor changed his name to Mark Rylance since his given name, Mark Waters, was already taken by another Equity member.
‘The passion and love that poured out of him toward everyone,’ Susannah said in an Instagram tribute to her brother. Even after only a few encounters with him, people assumed they were his friends. And he was my touchstone, my person on this planet, for me, his sister. Along with the rest of my family, whom I feel really fortunate to have.
I’m at a loss. ‘A significant part of me has vanished.’
Jonathan Waters had spent more than three decades at Chez Panisse, one of California’s most lauded restaurants, where he had started as a waiter before becoming an accomplished sommelier.
He was admired not only for his vast wine knowledge, but also for his “grace and joy, light and wit and spirit,” as one friend put it.
Sir Mark was in the West End revival of Jerusalem, where he gave an ‘almost super-human’ performance, according to one critic.
Theatregoers were informed this week of Jonno’s death and Rylance’s subsequent absence.
He’ll be in California on Sunday for a memorial service for his brother, with whom he and his sister, Susannah, grew up in America, mostly in Wisconsin, where their father was a professor at the University School of Milwaukee.
After the sudden death of his ‘beloved’ stepdaughter, Mr Rylance stepped down from his role in the Olympics opening ceremony.
During Danny Boyle’s ‘Isles of Wonder’ ceremony, which lit up the London Stadium, Rylance, one of Britain’s greatest Shakespearean actors, was set to recite verses from The Tempest.
However, after his ‘beloved daughter’ died of ‘unsuspected natural causes,’ the Olivier Award-winning actor withdrew.
Nataasha has known Rylance since she was three years old, as the daughter of his wife Claire van Kampen. Juliet Rylance, an award-winning actress, is her sister.
The talented independent filmmaker began working for Sky Television at the age of 16 and went on to produce short films before enrolling at the London Film School. Nocturne, her first film, premiered at the London Young Filmmakers Festival.
She presented herself as an artist, designer, and filmmaker who splits her time between New York and London.
She lived in a flat in the trendy Borough Market, near London Bridge, but she declared her love for New York and named it as her ‘home town’ on Facebook. ‘She had a cerebral haemorrhage on the plane,’ said one neighbor who claimed to have spoken to Mr Fitzgerald. It’s absolutely terrible; she had a golden heart.’