THE BEAST

Marilyn Manson tweeted last week to mark what would have been the 29th birthday of his friend, Star Trek star Anton Yelchin.

“I miss and wish I could be spending Anton Yelchin’s birthday together with him today. A- You will always be remembered. And I’ll miss you brother. I know you would have hated this twitter message. But it is making you laugh somewhere, you genius. M.”

Just three days before his tragic death in 2016, Anton Yelchin enjoyed a five-hour dinner at L.A.’s Chateau Marmont with good friend Marilyn Manson and photographer Tyler Shields.

“He was so elated and excited about different things,” Shields tells PEOPLE. “He was very passionate about a movie he wanted to direct. It is sad to me that he never got to make it.”

Manson suggested all three get together for dinner after the singer learned Yelchin had a love of photography. The three men spent the evening discussing photography, film and art.

Yelchin’s body was found in 2016 pinned between the car and the gate of his home in Studio City, California, after the 27-year-old’s vehicle rolled backward down the steep driveway, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson told PEOPLE at the time.