Cody Walker recalls that his late brother’s costars were “so supportive of the family” following Paul’s death in 2013
The cast of the Fast & Furious franchise quickly mobilized following Paul Walker’s death in 2013, the actor’s brother says.
Cody Walker tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that “Vin [Diesel], Tyrese [Gibson], Ludacris, Michelle [Rodriguez], Sung Kang . . . [have] all been so supportive of the family” in the years since Paul was killed in a car accident in Los Angeles.
“They were all at my mom’s [Cheryl Walker] house immediately following the accident for a couple of days,” Cody recalls. “They all flew in from Atlanta or wherever they were, and it really meant a lot.”
Paul appeared in The Fast and the Furious in 2001, the beginning of an 11-movie action franchise. Paul appeared in six of the films before his death.
Throughout the past decade, Cody says the actors have “all helped honor Paul and supported his charity, Reach Out WorldWide.”
Spurred on by the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Paul founded nonprofit Reach Out WorldWide (ROWW) to aid in transporting first responders to disaster areas to supplement local relief efforts.
To honor Paul’s philanthropy, “We’ve done different fundraisers,” says Cody, who has since launched live car events called FuelFest, which donates a portion of proceeds to ROWW. “We’ve done different things. We used to do these events called Game for Paul where we would do these big game charity fundraisers. Vin was a part of every single one of them. Tyrese and Michelle, multiple years, Sung, Nathalie Emmanuel, everybody just came together.”
Cody says that ROWW is an important part of his brother’s legacy — and speaks to Paul’s desire to do more to give back than just write a check.
“He was like, ‘No, I want to get in there and I want to help. I don’t want to be part of some big old PR campaign or anything like that. I want to go to Haiti. I want to go help the people there. I want to go to Chile. I want to go to the Philippines, and I want to help,’ ”
As for the support from his late brother’s costars — who have also been there for Paul’s daughter Meadow Walker’s big life moments, including her 2021 wedding — he says, “They all truly loved Paul.”