Eminem's Former Stunt Double Ryan Shepard Dead at 40 After Being Hit by Truck While Crossing Street
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Kurt Krieger/Corbis/Getty; KMazur/WireImage
Ryan Shepard, who worked with Eminem as he rose to fame following the release of his 1999 album The Slim Shady LP, has died. He was 40.
Shepard accompanied the 50-year-old rapper for many early performances, including the 2002 MTV Movie Awards and the 2002 Anger Management Tour, for which he worked both as a stunt double and a stand-in, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A preliminary investigation into his Jan. 31 death shows that he was hit by a truck as he stepped into a roadway in Kennewick, Washington. The Kennewick Police Department adds in their report that the truck driver remained at the scene following the incident and was not impaired.
KMazur/WireImage
Shepard was then transported to a local hospital, where he died, following undisclosed injuries he sustained after the incident. The incident remains under investigation by the Kennewick Police Traffic sector.
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According to the Tri-City Herald, this is the second fatal crash near the area of Shepard's death in the last four years. The previous occurred in 2019 after a station wagon hit an 82-year-old pedestrian in what police believed to be caused by darkness and rain.
The KPD did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Shepard's time working alongside the Grammy Award-winning rapper spanned a total of four years.
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While working for Eminem, he accompanied him for the European and Japanese legs of the Anger Management Tour. During which, he also assisted Eminem with some of his music videos, which included D12's "Purple Pills," in which he played a superhero clone of the rapper.
After leaving Eminem's record label (Shady Records) in 2005, he segued into the engineering space, working for Walt Disney Imagineering as a mechanical ride engineer and at SpaceX, where he served as a test automation engineer.
Shepard is survived by two children, a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old, according to TMZ, who confirmed the news with Shepard's brother Kyle.
