Former Child Actor Blake Garrett Dies at 33
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Blake Garrett
sheetsadam1 — 1 month ago(February 10, 2026 03:56 AM)
https://people.com/how-to-eat-fried-worms-child-actor-blake-garrett-dead-33-11902984
Blake Garrett, a former child actor who appeared in the 2006 movie
How to Eat Fried Worms
, has died at age 33.
TMZ was first to report news of his death on Monday, Feb. 9, as his mother Carol Garrett told the outlet he died Sunday, Feb. 8, and that her family is waiting to receive autopsy results from a medical examiner in Oklahoma to determine his cause of death.
According to the outlet, Carol said Blake recently went to the emergency room in Oklahoma after he experienced intense pain and was diagnosed with shingles. Blake's mother stated that Blake has been living in Tulsa for the last three years and had embraced a sober lifestyle in recent years.
PEOPLE was unable to immediately reach Carol for confirmation.
Blake is credited with two onscreen roles as a child actor, in the 2004
Barney & Friends
special
Barney's Colorful World, Live!
and as the character Plug in 2006's
How to Eat Fried Worms
, based on the 1974 children's book by Thomas Rockwell.
How to Eat Fried Worms
follows a child named Billy (Luke Benward) who finds himself making a bet with classroom bully Joe (Adam Hicks) that he must eat 10 worms without vomiting after starting at a new school.
“I play the bully’s henchman,” Blake told Oklahoma City-based newspaper The Oklahoman in a 2006 interview when he was 13. “But everybody got along on the set.”
“There were rows of bicycles, and they let me have first pick,” he said of his experience on set. “There was one scene where we were riding on a gravel road and got to slide to a stop. The guys who could ride worked on that scene. They had a camera on the ground, and in one scene I slid and gravel hit the camera. They really liked that shot, and that’s the one they used in the movie.”
Blake and the rest of
How to Eat a Fried Worms
child actors — the movie also starred Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Alexander Gould, Ryan Malgarini, Ty Panitz, Philip Bolden, Andrew Gillingham, Austin Rogers, Nick Krause, Stephan Bender and Alexander Agate — won a Young Artist Award in 2007 for Best Young Ensemble Cast in a Feature Film over
Nanny McPhee, Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
and
Unaccompanied Minors
.
The movie's adult cast included Tom Cavanagh, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, James Rebhorn and Andrea Martin.
Blake didn't continue with screen acting after
How to Eat Fried Worms
. At the time he spoke with The Oklahoman about his experience in the movie, the newspaper reporter that he was interested in playing football and wrestling.
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