Kaylee Hottle Dies: ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ & “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire’ Star Was 18
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- Kaylee Hottle died July 21 in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland, at age 18; her father Joshua Hottle announced the death via a Facebook livestream using American Sign Language, as both were deaf.
- Texas School for the Deaf, where Hottle was a high school senior, confirmed her passing on social media and asked the public to respect the family's privacy and refrain from speculating about the crash.
- Hottle played Jia, a deaf orphan adopted by Rebecca Hall's Dr. Ilene Andrews who develops a kinship with Kong, across both MonsterVerse films and was nominated for a 2023/2024 Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for the 2024 sequel (Jenna Ortega won).
- Casting agents for the Kong franchise discovered Hottle after she appeared in a commercial for a video relay service for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired users; she was fluent in ASL.
- Hottle's additional credits include a 2021 episode of 'Magnum P.I.' and the upcoming feature thriller 'What Doesn't Kill Us,' currently in pre-production.
- Joshua Hottle told TMZ he was flying to Maryland to claim his daughter's body; complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
Why it matters: Hottle's death cuts short the career of an 18-year-old Saturn-nominated actress who had secured roles in two major franchise films and a third feature in pre-production, and who represented a rare visibly deaf lead in a blockbuster franchise — a casting arc that began with a video relay service commercial.
