About 200 mourners attend the charity event which raises money for Albuquerque's Healthcare for the Homeless organization.
- Oct 21, 2013
AceShowbiz - "Breaking Bad" fans paid final respect to Walter White in a fake funeral for Bryan Cranston's meth dealer character on Saturday, October 19 in Albuquerque, where the show was filmed. Around 200 of mourners gathered at the Sunset Memorial Park cemetery and threw dirt across an empty coffin, which was placed in a real gravesite with a headstone.
Cranston and other lead actors from the series were not available for the event, but the show's set decorator Michael Flowers was on hand to deliver the eulogy. The event also paid tribute to Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez, two fictional Drugs Enforcement Agency officers who were murdered in the series finale.
The fake funeral was held for good cause, raising nearly $17,000 to benefit Albuquerque's Healthcare for the Homeless organization. Jackamoe Buzzell, a fan who organised the event, said, " 'Breaking Bad' means a lot to New Mexico, more than just a celebration of Walter White, and to be able to channel that popularity to support a homeless charity in this way is testament to that."
However, not all are not pleased with the charity event. Local KOAT television station reported that some people complained that the use of the cemetery for a fictional stunt was disrespectful and that the Walter White tombstone might draw tourists to the cemetery.
A petition has been launched to remove the grave. "Adding a psychical grave site will encourage tourists to visit a sacred burial site of hundreds and hundreds of loved ones," the petition reads.
"Cemetery officials say if crowds start gathering at the grave site of Walter White, they'll consider getting rid of his headstone. But the 'officials' should not put the family members through such disrespect during the process of them deciding if too many people are visiting the make shift grave."
The graveyard, however, still has no intention to remove the headstone and gravesite.
The fake funeral was planned to stream live on YouTube but the video was blocked on copyright grounds.
