The actor Sophie Nyweide has died at the age of 24, her family has announced.
An online obituary gives no cause of death, but says Nyweide died on 14 April.
“Sophie was a kind and trusting girl,” it reads. “Often this left her open to being taken advantage of by others. She wrote and drew voraciously and much of this art depicts the depth she had and it also represents the pain she suffered. Many of her writings and artwork are roadmaps of her struggles and traumas.
“Even with those roadmaps, diagnoses, and her own revelations, those closest to her, plus therapists, law enforcement officers and others who tried to help her are heartbroken their efforts couldn’t save her […] She repeatedly said she would ‘handle it’ on her own and was compelled to reject the treatment that might possibly have saved her life.”
Nyweide had her first screen credit aged six as the titular character in the weepie Bella, about a chef with a mysterious past who spends the day with a waitress who needs a friend.
Roles followed in Law & Order, and the films And Then Came Love, Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding and New York City Serenade. She played the daughter of Gael García Bernal and Michelle Williams’ characters in the 2009 film Mammoth, and a young girl in the Russell Crowe-starring Noah in 2014.
Her last screen credit was in a 2015 episode of the social experiment reality show What Would You Do?.
The obituary concluded: “Sophie. A life ended too soon. May it not be in vain. May we all learn from her brief life on earth and do better. Yes, we must all protect our children and do better.”
