Marty York is still healing.
The Sandlot actor, who played Alan “Yeah-Yeah” McClennan in the 1993 film, shared insight into the aftermath of his mother’s October 2023 murder.
“I’m hanging in there as much as I can,” he told Access Hollywood in an interview that aired April 5. “It’s been hard just everything—trying to come back in this business, trying to deal with my mom’s death and how it happened.”
And while his mother, Deanna Esmaeel, inspired him throughout his career, York explained that he plans to continue his acting career in her honor.
“If it wasn’t for my mom, I wouldn’t be in the position that I’m in,” he continued. “My mom believed in me through the hardest times of this business, my mom was always being like, ‘You got this.'”
York’s mother, who worked as a deputy in the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office in Crescent, Calif., was found dead at her home Oct. 12. Her boyfriend, Edward Patrick Davies, formerly known as Daniel James Walter, was seen on camera leaving Esmaeel’s home at 7:43 a.m. that morning, Sheriff Garrett Scott told Wild Rivers Outpost.