Actor ID’d as victim in deadly Southern California plane crash

An actor turned aviation fanatic has been identified as one of two who died in a Southern California plane crash last week.

A light aircraft containing Guy Kapulnik crashed nose-down in a remote field Thursday morning in Hesperia, north of Lake Arrowhead.

Kapulnik was an Israeli who served in the Israeli Defense Forces in its elite 669 search and rescue unit.

He acted in movies such as 2020’s Call of the Wild, “Room 514,” “Salsa Tel Aviv,” “Watch Over Me,” and “Lebanon.” Kapulnik has more than 30 IMDB credits in his career.

The actor lived in Los Angeles and worked as a flight instructor in recent years, according to the Times of Israel.

He studied at the Technion in Haifa and the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in Jerusalem, the outlet reported. His family called him a “man of action.”

“Guy was a man of action, curiosity, and adventure. An actor and creator, a skipper and seaman. Throughout his life, he moved between the stage and the camera, the sea and the skies, and dared again and again to choose new paths and do the things he loved,” his family told the Times of Israel.

The other person who died in the plane crash was identified as 33-year-old Taylor Laska, a resident of Santa Monica.

Kapulnik’s plane was a single-engine Aeronca Champion which belonged to Midfield Aviation of Apple Valley, according to Victor Valley News.

Kapulnik’s memorial will be held Wednesday in the Israeli community of Karmei Yosef, his hometown.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the crash.

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