The mother of Rory Sykes, 32, a British-born former child actor who died tragically in the Los Angeles wildfires, has recounted the moment her son “took his first step” after watching Tom Hanks in Forest Gump.
Speaking with Australia’s Channel Nine Sunday, Shelley Sykes said she endured a desperate battle to keep her son alive during his early years as he battled complex needs tied with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
Rory, a former Australian TV series Kiddy Kapers child star, “started having surgery as a baby”, she said.
“He had nine surgeries to straighten his legs, [and] straighten his eyes, and he used to watch ‘Forrest Gump’ all the time when he was 4.
“He got the all-clear in his eyes at 8, but he took his first step[s] after watching ‘Forrest Gump’ 400 times”, she said.
Despite facing these challenges along with being born blind, Rory managed to live “an extraordinary life” she said.
Rory, who lived in a private cottage on Sykes’ 17-acre Mount Malibu TV Studio estate, a home she described on X as “decked out with all the latest Apple gadgets”, perished in the flames as the Palisades Fire took hold last Wednesday.
“I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by Las Virgenes Municipal Water.
“Even the 50 brave firefighters had no water all day!”, she wrote on X Thursday.
Last Wednesday, three 1 million gallon, high-elevation water tanks that supplied the hard-hit Pacific Palisades ran dry after high demand drained and lowered the pressure within the overall hydrant system – shortages that prompted an independent investigation Friday.
Rory had been more recently known as a video game streamer who had living in Sydney, Australia, before he recently decided to immigrate to the U.S.
He and his mother made an appearance on the Australian talk show Kerri-Anne as a child, to discuss the surgeries he had undergone to restore his sight.
As of Monday, firefighters are anticipating the return of strong Santa Ana winds that are expected to fan the flames of the existing wildfires raging across southern California – 24 people are confirmed to have died since the fires broke out last Tuesday evening.
