Blake Garrett, a former child actor best known for playing the bully’s sidekick Plug in the 2006 family comedy “How to Eat Fried Worms,” has died at age 33, his mother confirmed to TMZ on Monday.
Garrett died Sunday, February 8, at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His mother, Carol Garrett, told the outlet the family is awaiting autopsy results to determine an official cause of death.
The former child star went to an emergency room in Oklahoma last week after experiencing intense pain and was diagnosed with shingles, a painful viral infection caused by the reactivation of the chickenpox virus. Carol Garrett told TMZ she fears her son may have self-medicated to cope with the pain and believes his death may have been a tragic accident.
Despite the tragic circumstances, Carol Garrett said her son had been thriving in recent years. “Blake had been living a really good life over the past three years in Tulsa,” she told TMZ, noting he had truly turned things around after becoming sober.
Born September 14, 1992, in Austin, Texas, Garrett discovered his love for performing at age 8, appearing in numerous local productions. He landed lead roles early in his career, playing the magician in “Aladdin and His Magical Lamp” and Charlie Brown in “Peanuts: A Charlie Brown Tribute.” His theater credits also included productions of “The Wizard of Oz,” “Annie,” and “Grease.”
At just 10 years old, Garrett traveled internationally with the arena show “Barney’s Colorful World International Tour” from 2003 to 2004, playing the role of Mike. He toured with the production for 18 months and also appeared in the subsequent video release.
His biggest break came in 2006 when he was cast as Plug in “How to Eat Fried Worms,” a children’s comedy written and directed by Bob Dolman and based on Thomas Rockwell’s 1973 children’s book. The film starred Luke Benward as Billy Forrester, a new kid in school who accepts a dare to eat 10 worms in a single day. Garrett played one of the bully’s henchmen alongside a cast that included Hallie Kate Eisenberg—sister of Oscar-winning actor Jesse Eisenberg—as well as Tom Cavanagh, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and James Rebhorn.
In a 2006 interview with The Oklahoman when he was 13, Garrett reflected fondly on his experience making the film.
“I play the bully’s henchman,” Garrett said at the time. “But everybody got along on the set.”
He also recalled the excitement of being one of the few actors who already knew how to ride a bike before filming began, which gave him access to the best equipment on set.
“There were rows of bicycles, and they let me have first pick,” he said.
Garrett went on to describe one particularly memorable scene that made it into the final cut of the film. The sequence involved riding bikes on a gravel road and sliding to a stop while cameras captured the action from ground level. During one take, gravel from Garrett’s bike slide hit the camera lens—and the directors loved it so much they used that exact shot in the movie.
For their work on “How to Eat Fried Worms,” Garrett and his fellow cast members won the Young Artist Award for Best Young Ensemble in a Feature Film in 2007. The ensemble included Benward, Eisenberg, Alexander Gould, Adam Hicks, Ryan Malgarini, and several other young actors.
After his success in “How to Eat Fried Worms,” Garrett appeared in the pilot episode of the NBC television series “Inconceivable,” a medical drama about a fertility clinic that premiered in September 2005 but was canceled after just two episodes. He also had a featured role in “Little Flower.” However, he does not appear to have continued acting into adulthood.
While on the “Barney’s Colorful World International Tour,” Garrett experienced one aspect of fame that particularly stood out to him as a young performer. Children in countries around the world were fascinated by his nearly white-blonde hair, which was unusual in many places the tour visited. Some had never encountered someone with his hair color before and wanted to touch it.
Shingles, the viral infection Garrett was diagnosed with before his death, affects approximately one in three people at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition causes a painful rash when the dormant chickenpox virus reactivates, often decades after the initial infection. While the pain can be severe, shingles results in fewer than 100 deaths annually in the United States, with almost all fatalities occurring in older adults or those with weakened immune systems.
Garrett had been living what his mother described as a good life in Tulsa over the past three years, having gotten back on the right track after achieving sobriety. He is survived by his mother, younger brother, and the family’s pets.
