Devon Sawa is paying tribute to his late Little Giants costar Jon Paul Steuer after news broke on Friday, January 5, that the actor had died on New Year’s Day. Steuer was 33.
The Somewhere Between actor used a line Steuer’s character Johnny Vennaro says in the 1994 children’s comedy they starred in together. Sawa retweeted an article on Friday and wrote: “‘Pitch to Johnny!’ – ‘you can’t pitch to Johnny, I’m Johnny!!!’ – First ‘LITTLE GIANT’ down,” and added a broken heart emoji.
“Pitch to Johnny!” – “ you can’t pitch to Johnny, I’m Johnny!!!” – First “LITTLE GIANT “ down. 💔 https://t.co/YGUlJ7aPT6
— devon sawa (@DevonESawa) January 5, 2018
Another member of the cast, Marcus Toji, also shared his reaction to the news. “While we were filming #LittleGiants the cast became family. It seems today we lost a brother. Rest in Peace, JP,” the actor, who played Marcus in the popular flick, tweeted on Friday.
While we were filming #LittleGiants the cast became family. It seems today we lost a brother. Rest in Peace, JP.https://t.co/jv2lzqf3MC
— Marcus Toji (@MToji) January 5, 2018
The former child star’s group members in the music band P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S confirmed the news of his passing with a Facebook post on Wednesday, January 3. “It is with heavy hearts and saddened minds that we announce the passing of our dear friend and singer Jonny Jewels, AKA Jon Paul Steuer,” the group wrote. “The addition of Jonny to our dysfunctional band family was one of the best choices that we have ever made, and he brought a much needed sense of fun and lightheartedness to everything we did.”
Steuer was also known for playing Alexander Rozhenko in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the official Star Trek Online Twitter account also sent a message paying tribute to the late actor. “Rest in Peace, Jon Paul Steuer, the first actor to play Alexander in TNG. You will be deeply missed,” the account tweeted on Thursday, January 4.
Steuer eventually moved away from acting to focus on his music career and he opened a vegan restaurant called Harvest at the Bindery in Northeast Portland in 2015.
His cause of death has yet to be confirmed, but the Portland Police Bureau’s Public Information Officer confirmed to Us Weekly that they responded to a call about the musician. “I am able to confirm Portland Police responded to a call regarding Mr. Steuer on January 1, 2018,” they told Us.
A GoFundMe page with a goal of $5,000 was created on Wednesday to help cover the funeral costs, as well as to help his parents. “The owner of Harvest at The Bindery, ‘Jonny P Jewels’ passed away on 1/1/2018. His wonderful parents, Paula and Tom have been running Harvest for years now and have spent so much of their retirement doing so,” the page’s description reads. “Please help out by donating what you can to help cover funeral, memorial costs and to give them something after all they have given this community here in Portland.”
