Jonathan Lipnicki “obituary”

The following story is Hannah Towey’s 4th round entry for “The Big Scribble.” The Prompt: write the first 200 words of an obituary for one of these four living people: Mariah Carey, Mikhail Gorbachev, actor Jonathan Lipnicki, or former baseball player Bip Roberts.

Jonathan “Johnny” Lipnicki, the American actor known for his blockbuster roles as a child, died on Tuesday during a Jiu-Jitsu match in Southern California. He was 29.

The world knew Lipnicki for his overwhelmingly cute characters in “Jerry Maguire” and “Stuart Little.” By the age of six, he taught us the weight of the human head (8 pounds) and how to befriend local rodents.

But what most people don’t know is that Lipnicki fought on and off the screen for the world to see beyond his childhood face. The grandson of an Auschwitz survivor and Korean War veteran, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt and a classically trained artist, Lipnicki’s legacy extends far beyond “cute.”

In his most recent work, the Canadian thriller Broil, Lipnicki plays a killer-for-hire with a sinister knack for the culinary arts. The actor said he was especially drawn to dark material due to his past experiences with bullying and depression.

“I really wish more people knew who I am as an artist now,” Lipnicki said in a final interview prior to his death. “I’m better than I’ve ever been and I’ve been training my ass off to be able to show that.”