Child Actor Jack Burns Dies at Age 14
Jack Burns, a 14-year-old child actor and ballet dancer from Scotland who was known for his role in “Outlander,” died on Dec. 1, multiple outlets reported.
Burns was a talented dancer who appeared in the Starz drama “Outlander,” in 2014. The boy also starred in a British drama series “In Plain Sight” in 2016 and appeared in the Netflix miniseries “One of Us,” according to his IMDb page.
The teenager was found dead inside his home in Greenlock, Inverclyde in Scotland, Metro News reported.
Elite Academy of Dance – Greenocks Royal Academy Classical Ballet School, where Burns studied dance, confirmed the heartbreaking news on Facebook.
“Jack was an inspiration to everyone at Elite and touched the hearts of everyone who had the pleasure of working and dancing with him since 2012,” the statement read.
“We and all of Jacks family and friends are naturally completely devastated and at a loss for words and answers.”
Burns’ parents, Karen and Robert, and his brother Rory invited their son’s dance family to attend the funeral, a show of support that would provide the grieving family with “much comfort,” the post read.
No cause of death has been released at this time, but police are not treating the death as suspicious, Metro News reported.
At his young age, the boy was considered a rising talent in the dance community. Burns had reportedly been compared to the likes of Billy Elliot, a 2000 British dance drama film about a boy’s journey to becoming a professional dancer while enduring negative stereotypes about male ballet dancers.
Burns was a student at St Columba’s School in Kilmacolm, and had also studied dance at the Glasgow School of Ballet.
‘This is a tragedy for the family which is inexplicable,” Father Thomas Boyle, the priest of St. Mary’s Church in Greenock, where Burns’ funeral will be held, told the Daily Mail.
“Everyone will be at the funeral tomorrow to support Karen, Robert and his brother Rory,” Boyle said.
“Everything he participated in so well in his life will be there, from the ballet school, his rugby club and the people he played football with. Everyone’s absolutely devastated by what’s happened.”
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