{"id":5093,"date":"2026-07-21T17:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5093"},"modified":"2026-07-21T17:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:39:12","slug":"godzilla-vs-kong-actress-kaylee-hottle-18-dies-after-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5093","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Godzilla vs. Kong\u2019 actress Kaylee Hottle, 18, dies after car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cGodzilla vs. Kong\u201d star Kaylee Hottle died after a tragic car crash in Maryland earlier this week, according to a report. She was 18 years old.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5091\">Teen boys accused of robbing online sellers at gunpoint in San Jose<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The actress\u2019 father, Joshua Hottle, confirmed the sad news to TMZ on Wednesday. He also shared a 20-minute livestream on Facebook, communicating with followers in ASL as his daughter also deaf. He said he was in Texas when he learned of the collision, and that he received a follow-up call informing him Kaylee\u2019s heart had stopped on the way to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am taking a flight that I never would like to take,\u201d he captioned the video, referring to the journey he had to take to claim his daughter\u2019s body.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Kaylee comes from an all-deaf family, spanning four generations of deaf relatives on her father\u2019s side, according to her IMDb bio. She started acting at a young age, nabbing roles in commercials for the live video messaging app Glide \u2014 often used by many members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community \u2014 and for the video relay service app Convo. She told Chron magazine in a 2024 interview that the latter ad caught the eye of a casting director Sarah Halley Finn, who went on to recruit her for her role as Jia in \u201cGodzilla vs. Kong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5089\">Taylor Farms remains focus of FDA investigation, despite false positive<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a connection with Convo. They asked me to be in a commercial one day, and so I did that commercial,\u201d she told Chron through an interpreter. \u201cAnd then the assistant director of [Kong: Skull Island] saw me and they thought I matched the character description of Jia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the 2021 movie, Kaylee\u2019s character, a native of Skull Island, communicated with Kong through sign language. She also appeared in the 2024 sequel, \u201cGodzilla X Kong: The New Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5087\">South Bay office leasing activity hits highest level since late 2024: report<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Godzilla vs. Kong&#8221; star Kaylee Hottle died after a tragic car crash in Maryland earlier this week, according to a report. She was 18 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Godzilla vs. Kong\u2019 actress Kaylee Hottle, 18, dies after car crash - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5093\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Godzilla vs. Kong\u2019 actress Kaylee Hottle, 18, dies after car crash - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;Godzilla vs. Kong&quot; star Kaylee Hottle died after a tragic car crash in Maryland earlier this week, according to a report. 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