Kong

Actor Kaylee Hottle, best known for her portrayal of a young deaf orphan who shares a special bond with the giant guardian ape in “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” has died. She was 18.

Hottle died Tuesday morning after the car she was a passenger in crashed into a culvert off the side of the road in Ijamsville, Md., the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Her father, Joshua Hottle, confirmed her death in a video on Facebook.

“I am taking a flight that I never would like to take,” he wrote in the caption of the video post, in which he explained the situation in American Sign Language. He was on his way from Texas to claim her body, according to TMZ.

The Texas School for the Deaf also addressed the actor’s death on social media.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland,” read the Instagram post. “Our hearts are with Kaylee’s family, friends, classmates and everyone who knew and loved her during this incredibly difficult time.”

Hottle’s breakout role was in the 2021 MonsterVerse crossover “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which marked her big-screen debut as the young orphan Jia. Jia is the last remaining survivor of the Iwi tribe on Skull Island who shares a connection with Kong, the island’s protector. Her adoptive parent, Dr. Ilene Andrews, is a linguistics expert and Kong researcher, played by Rebecca Hall. Hottle reprised the role in the 2024 follow-up, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”

“After I watched the movie, I thought, ‘Wow, this is going to make such a big impact,’” Hottle said in a 2024 interview with New York’s WABC. “I was so excited. She’s a young deaf girl, just like many others out there. And this journey that she’s going on is just going to be so amazing.”

The actor, who was born in Atlanta, was from an all-deaf family, which included four generations of deaf relatives on her father’s side, according to IMDb.

Authorities said Hottle was one of two passengers in the 1995 Honda Accord that was involved in the crash. While the incident is still being investigated, the Sheriff’s Office said in its news release that “excessive speed is believed to be a contributing factor in the collision.”

Millie Bobby Brown, who also appeared in “Godzilla vs. Kong,” was among those who shared tributes to Hottle following the news of her death.

“I’m so devastated to hear this,” she wrote in her Instagram story, which included a black-and-white photo of Hottle as Jia. “You will be deeply missed Kaylee.”

“I am absolutely gutted about the passing of sweet Kaylee Hottle,” Oscar winner Marlee Matlin wrote on Instagram. “May her beauty and talent be a memory for eternity. … Such a privilege to have met Kaylee last year. Please be kind to one another. Take the time to listen to your child. Say 🤟🏼 each time you part. 🩵”

GODZILLA vs Kong star Kaylee Hottle has died at the age of 18, following a fatal car crash in Maryland.

The young actress, who won hearts worldwide as Jia in the hit Hollywood monster franchise, passed away following the collision.

Here is everything we know so far about her death, her life, and the tributes pouring in.

Who was Kaylee Hottle?

Kaylee Hottle was a young American actress best known for her breakout role as Jia in the Legendary Pictures MonsterVerse film series.

Born in 2007 into an all-deaf family, Kaylee grew up natively fluent in American Sign Language (ASL).

Her path to Hollywood stardom began in 2017 when she starred in a commercial for the video relay service provider Convo.

Her major break arrived when acclaimed casting director Sarah Halley Finn was seeking a deaf actress to play Jia – a young Iwi girl with a unique bond with King Kong – in the 2021 blockbuster Godzilla vs Kong.

Guided to Kaylee by an assistant director who remembered her performance in the Convo commercial, the film team knew she was perfect for the role.

The movie became a massive global hit, launching Kaylee into the international spotlight.

She reprised her role as Jia in the 2024 sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Her performance in the film earned her a nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor at the 52nd Saturn Awards.

Outside of her film work, Kaylee was a senior student at the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) in Austin, Texas.

What was the cause of her death?

Kaylee Hottle reportedly died following a serious car crash in Frederick, Maryland.

Local law enforcement sources confirmed to The U.S. Sun that officers were called to the scene of a fatal crash involving the teenage star, where emergency personnel remained on site.

Her father, Joshua Hottle, first revealed the news of her death during an emotional 23-minute livestream on Facebook.

In the video, presented in American Sign Language (ASL), Joshua shared that he was forced to board an urgent flight to Maryland after receiving a call from officials informing him of the tragic accident.

He explained that authorities notified him that Kaylee’s heart had stopped while she was being transported to the hospital in an ambulance.

Captioning the live broadcast, he wrote: “I am taking a flight that I never would like to take.”

Exact details regarding the cause of the collision, the vehicle involved, or whether anyone else was injured remain unconfirmed as emergency services continue their investigation.

Her former school released a statement noting that official information remains “very limited” and urged the public to refrain from speculating on the circumstances while inquiries continue.

Who has paid tribute?

Tributes have poured in from across the deaf community and film industry following news of the young star’s death.

Kaylee’s school released a statement mourning the loss of their student.

It said: “It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland.

“Our hearts are with Kaylee’s family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved her during this incredibly difficult time.”

The school added that counseling and support services have been made available for students and staff as they process the loss.

Her father’s livestream received a flood of condolences from friends, family, and members of the deaf community, while fans worldwide have taken to social media to honor Kaylee’s screen representation and express sympathy for her family.

July 16 (UPI) — Police in Hong Kong detained five bookstore workers on suspicion of breaches of the territory’s national security law during raids on two independent shops.

The two men, aged 37 and 57, and three women, aged between 30 and 59, were arrested in the Mong Kok district of the city on Wednesday on suspicion of “intention to commit sedition” under the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, Hong Kong Police Force said in a news release.

They said the five were being detained under investigation. If convicted, they face a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

Police accuse the suspects of displaying items with seditious intent and selling publications with seditious content, specifically inciting hatred against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies.

They said they seized books which they allege had “seditious intent” from the shops during the raid, which was mounted on a tip-off after customs officers intercepted a shipment of books allegedly containing seditious material. Police did not say which country the books were being shipped from.

Local media identified the stores as Greenfield Book Store and Have A Nice Stay, which is run by former journalists and specializes in books on democracy, authoritarianism and media literacy.

Photos circulating online show one young woman being led away from the Have A Nice Stay store in handcuffs and police loading plastic storage containers of evidence onto a truck.

The raid came a day after Have A Nice Stay announced on Instagram that it would be shutting its doors for good on Aug. 30. Apologizing, it said because it was losing money and was fearful of running foul of the law.

“The elusive red line is certainly a reason. The director has made it clear before that he will not explain what books cannot be sold. We are really limited in our ability to read every book or decide which are a ‘problem.’ For us, books are the space of knowledge and thought, and this space is supposed to be flawless… We lack the ability and courage to carry out our mission of disseminating knowledge through books,” the store wrote.

According to its Facebook bio, Greenfield Book Store specializes in literature, history, philosophy, art, society, and self-help books from Hong Kong and Taiwan with discounts offered year-round.

Human rights groups condemned the arrests.

“The use of ‘sedition’ offenses to target bookstores once again demonstrates how Hong Kong’s national security framework is being weaponized to silence dissenting voices and eradicate spaces for free thought and debate,” Amnesty International said in a news release.

It said increasingly ambiguous “red lines” for booksellers intentionally left publishers and authors guessing what material could render them liable to criminal investigation, arrest or closure, stoking fear and self-censorship with “devastating consequences for freedom of expression.”

Human Rights Watch said in a post on X that the targeting of and arrests of booksellers “exposed what the Chinese government fears most: free thinking.”

“Beijing is trying to impose a world where people think only what the authorities permit,” it wrote.

The arrests bring to 11 the number of bookstore workers arrested following raids on two other stores in March and June.

The latest crackdown came two weeks after bookseller Lam Wing-Kee passed away in exile in Taiwan. He ran Causeway Bay Books on Hong Kong island for two decades until he, Gui Minhai and four others associated with the business went missing in 2015.

Lam returned to Hong Kong eight months later, saying he had been abducted by Chinese security officials as he was returning from a trip to the mainland. He gave a press conference claiming he had been sent back to Hong Kong to retrieve a hard drive containing names of writers and customers. He then fled to Taiwan.

A Chinese court in Ningbo sentenced Swedish citizen Gui to 10 years in prison in 2020 for “illegally providing intelligence” to foreign governments after Swedish authorities concluded he was likely kidnapped while on vacation in Thailand in 2015 and may have been tortured while in custody.

Thai authorities had no record of Gui exiting the country.

A fine place to stop for a milk tea-centered breakfast or lunch after exploring the labyrinth of African, Indian and other international shops and food stalls inside Chungking Mansions — one of the last remaining film locations in Wong Kar-wai’s iconic “Chungking Express,” where Brigitte Lin’s drug-dealing retired actor is seen conducting her business in a blond wig, trenchcoat and sunglasses. Lan Fong Yuen, in the basement of Heath Mall (which is technically part of Chungking Mansions but has a separate street entrance), has its own historic pedigree. Late founder Lam Muk-ho is credited with originating silk-stocking milk tea (it’s strained through a long cloth filter), and possibly yuenyeung (milk tea mixed with coffee), at the still-operating Gage Street stall he opened in Central in 1952. He’s also said to have popularized the thick-cut Hong Kong-style French toast and pork-chop buns so familiar in our own San Gabriel Valley cafes, as well as “lo-ding” instant noodle dishes, especially the chicken-chop version. The Tsim Sha Tsui location opened in 2009 but has an older diner aesthetic that attracts tourists and locals who line up for the scene and affordable Hong Kong comfort food.

Heath Mall basement, Shop No. S09, Chungking Mansions, 44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

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