Bad News Bears Remake Star Sammi Kane Kraft Dies in Car Crash at Age 20
- Oct. 12th, 2012 at 9:28 AM
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Sammi Kane Kraft, the real-life baseball player who portrayed Amanda Whurlitzer in the 2005 remake of Bad News Bears, died in a car accident in Los Angeles, E! News reports.
The athlete and actress was 20 years old. Authorities told E! that Kraft was the passenger in an Audi "traveling at a high rate of speed" when it rear-ended a big rig and was then hit by another car. Kraft was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The driver, 21-year-old Molly Kate Adams, survived with moderate injuries, and was arrested for suspected felony drunk drinking.
Kraft played the tomboy character originated by Tatum O'Neal in the original 1976 Bad News Bears.
"I could never fill Tatum O'Neal's shoes," Kraft (who had a 70 mph fastball) said in 2005, "but I tried to make the role my own."
California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
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'Bad News Bears' actress, 20, dies in car crash
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(Photo: Paul Hawthorne, Getty Images)
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8:07AM EDT October 12. 2012 - Sammi Kane Kraft, who played a pitcher in the 2005 remake of Bad News Bears, has died in a Los Angeles car crash. She was 20.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Kraft was a passenger in an Audi that rear-ended a big rig and was struck by another car at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 10.
Her brother, Frankie Kane, tells the Times that Kane was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The California Highway Patrol says the Audi's driver was treated for moderate injuries and arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving, reports AP.
Kraft was 13 when she was discovered on a Los Angeles baseball diamond and cast in the role of pitcher Amanda Whurlitzer, made famous by Tatum O'Neal in 1976.
After graduating from high school in 2010, Kraft studied at San Francisco State and started a folk-country-rock band called Scary Girls, reports the Times. After returning to Los Angeles this year, Kraft enrolled at Santa Monica College and often performed as a solo singer-guitarist at small venues. She and her brother had just collaborated on a musical.
'Bad News Bears' actress, 20, dies in car crash
I know most people probably won't remember her, but I really thought this was sad.
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