Star Trek Fan Passes Away Shortly After Star Trek Into Darkness Screening

Daniel Craft, the Star Trek fan diagnosed with terminal cancer six weeks ago and given an opportunity to see a rough cut of Star Trek Into Darkness earlier this week, passed away last night, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Craft, who also founded the New York Asian Film Festival, worked to promote Asian cinema in the United States and even occasionally appeared on Chinese television, usually as the "evil white guy," a friend said. "Jackie Chan, Jet Li--these actors have careers in the US because of people like Dan bringing their movies over when distributors weren't doing it," his friend Grady Hendrix said. Craft also starred as an extra in Kill Bill Volume 1. In spite of cautions from the producers that the cut they were going to show him was very rough, Craft enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness, according to his wife, who couldn't say anything else due to a non-disclosure agreement, but Hendrix said that Craft wouldn't be comfortable with all the fuss his case has attracted in the media. "Dan would be rolling his eyes at being 'the inspirational cancer story,' but he's done a lot for movies over the years," Hendrix told THR. "It's nice that the movies finally did something for him."