Max Philip Goldstein, a prolific artist, master storyteller, and proud student at the University of Texas at Austin, died on February 11, 2025, leaving his adoring family and the legions of friends he made everywhere he went broken-hearted.
Max packed more into his 24 years than many people manage in a lifetime. Obsessed with the Hero’s Journey, including his own, he craved new and varied experiences and never stood still for too long – unless deep in a music or art project, and then hours or days could pass before he emerged excited to share a finished piece.
Born on January 13, 2001, and weighing in at 10 pounds, 4 ounces, Max was dubbed “King of the Nursery’’ by the staff at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. From that day on, and through his childhood obsessions with LEGOs, Minecraft, baseball and fishing, he was larger than life, bringing an exuberance to everything he did. Nicknamed “Maximum Max” as a toddler, he lived life at full volume.
Max, earlier this year
Music, filmmaking and photography became his biggest passions and defined him. He started each as a teenager in South Orange, New Jersey, where his family moved when he was six years old. His films screened at festivals throughout New Jersey and across Texas. Max’s photography won two Scholastic Gold Key Awards, and, at 15, he was one of the two youngest artists ever to be featured on the SOMA Artists Studio Tour in 2016. In music, he was a verified artist on Spotify in two distinct genres: as MOSHE, and as Kid Baudelaire.
Max created more than 20 short films, music videos or vlogs, many of which can be found at mpgarchive and maxphilipgoldstein on YouTube. He acted in several of the films, leaving family and friends the blessing of being able to forever see him doing something he loved. Besides his music, Max was perhaps proudest of his animated short Colors of the Spirit, which was chosen among the “Best of the Fest” at the Garden State Film Festival and shown at the New Jersey School Boards Association’s annual convention at a showcase of high school filmmaking. It also won at numerous other festivals, and he was invited by CinemaEd when he was 19 to speak on a panel at the Austin Film Festival.
He wrote, co-directed and acted in Max’s Candy Crush, deemed a classic by friends and family and honored at numerous film festivals and by the Essex County Board of Commissioners.
Max in Shakespeare in Love
Besides film and photography at Columbia High School, Max was a member of the Parnassian Society and performed as Marlowe in the CHS production of Shakespeare in Love. The Arts weren’t his only endeavor in high school: he was captain of the swim team and served four summers as a lifeguard at the South Orange Community Pool.
When it came time to apply to college, Max wanted to follow in his sister Mia’s footsteps to the University of Texas. He was determined to get in, building up his film portfolio, going to Austin two summers in a row for a film camp at UT’s Radio-Television-Film program and setting up annual visits with the Dean of Advising, who was so impressed with Max’s work that he put him on a list of students he wanted accepted. Max only found out about that after committing. His application essay was used as a writing example on a website helping high school students applying to UT. When Max was admitted, he ran down his street in South Orange wearing a shirt with a Texas flag design, carrying the football team’s flag over his head. He delighted in being a Longhorn.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Max took a couple of breaks from school to focus on his mental health and his music, starting in 2021. Max set off on a series of adventures on his own, traveling across the continent to see his favorite musical artists perform and to camp out for a week at Burning Man. He wrote and produced numerous singles and an album, and had another in the works. “Kid Baudelaire” only ever had one show, but Max had plans to DJ his music for a set at SXSW at the Pearl Street venue in March. Max was living at the Fountain Terrace apartments in Austin at the time of his death and intended to return to school in the fall and set up open mic events. His death appears to have been accidental, police said.
Max loved deeply and was deeply loved by family and so many friends across the globe, as someone with the ability to transcend social groups – fellow artists, musicians and filmmakers, his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, and the hippies and international students he lived with during his year at the Pearl Street Co-Op, where he helped host poker and trivia nights, played his music at dance parties and was voted “Loudest Pearlie.”
Without Max’s light, the world is a dimmer – and quieter – place.
He is survived by his parents, Laura Griffin and Alan Goldstein, his sister, Mia Goldstein; his grandparents Linda Hardy and Jack and Rachelle Goldstein; aunts Amy Griffin, Linda Goldstein, Heidi Goldstein Shepherd, Bonnie Hardy and Emily Galyon; uncles Danny Goodwin, James Hardy, Guy Manuel, Jay Shepherd and Patrick Galyon; cousins Ella and Anna Goodwin, Alison and Clifford Douglas Hardy, Andre and Stefan Manuel, Rebecca and Samantha Shepherd; and Reyna and Bodie Galyon; and so many extended family of great aunts, great uncles and second and third cousins and friends around the globe. He is predeceased by his grandfathers John Michael Griffin and Clifford Hardy.
There will be a celebration of his life in New Jersey on March 22, 2025 in The Loft at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (details forthcoming), and UT-Austin will honor him with a memorial and flag-lowering ceremony in the fall. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to UT’s Radio-Television-Film Department in Max’s memory. You can also honor him by listening to his music and watching his films. To add a memory or condolences, visit Max’s Dignity Memorial page.
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