Clint Arlis, a contestant on Kaitlyn Bristowe's season of The Bachelorette, has died at age 34. A family friend confirmed the news on Wednesday that the Batavia, Illinois, native had passed.
Clint is most remembered for striking up a friendship with JJ on Kaitlyn's season and being one of the early villains. He was eliminated in week 3. His death follows other notable untimely deaths of Bachelorette contestants, including Tyler Gwozdz on Hannah Brown's season and Eric Hill, who competed on Andi Dorfman's season and died in a paragliding accident before her season started airing. Although Clint's time was cut short on the show, he made the most of his experience.
His high school coach, Scott Bayer, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, "It is with a heavy heart and a sense of profound loss that we announce the death of one of the Batavia Wrestling Program's All-Time greats, 2005 graduate, Clint Arlis." Bayer added, "He was an talented artist with a sharp wit, a sardonic sense of humor and palpable authenticity." Nick Viall, who competed on Kaitlyn's season and finished as a runner-up, wrote, "Just heard about the passing of Clint Arlis. I got a chance to get know Clint a little after our time on Kaitlyns season and I always enjoy are time and conversations. A very kind, unique, and talented person who was taken from this world far too soon. RIP Clint".
The University of Illinois Wrestling team tweeted, "We are incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of former Illini wrestler Clint Arlis." Clint said in his ABC bio before Kaitlyn's season that his favorite movies were Tommy Boy, Good Will Hunting and Gladiator. He also mentioned that if he could be anyone for a day it would be Chuck Norris and said his father is someone he looks up to because of his creative drive, work ethic and ingenuity.
Clint, who graduated from Illinois with a dual master's degree in civil engineering and architecture, was a project manager who looked like he was open to work. He wrote in his LinkedIn bio that he was a "Houston transplant with nine years of experience in the Chicago building market looking for a position in Houston or Austin. Managed preconstruction and construction stages on several multi-million dollar projects across a variety of building typologies as a project manager." He said he was developing a "patent-pending guitar-playing device" and was involved in 3-D printing and design.
Source: Coach Bayer, Illinois Wrestling, Nick Viall, Clint Arlis