Austin Butler has wished his late mom a happy birthday

Alongside a throwback snap of himself as a child with his mom, he wrote on Instagram: "happy birthday mama [heart emoji] i miss you every day."

Austin started his career as a teenager with small appearances on shows such as 'Hannah Montana' on Disney Channel opposite Miley Cyrus and Nickelodeon's 'Zoey 101' with Jamie Lynn Spears before he became a mainstream Hollywood star in movies such as 'Elvis'.

But the actor has previously admitted that he almost gave everything up because he had "never experienced pain" like the grief he felt when his mom died.

In a roundtable interview for The Hollywood Reporter, the 'Eddington' star recalled: "After my mom passed away, I'd never experienced pain like that before, and I started to question. Suddenly I was around doctors and people that were hurting a lot in hospitals, and I thought, 'Is acting a noble profession? Should I be doing this or should I give myself in some way that can help people who are dealing with cancer or something like that?'

"After my mom passed away, I went straight to New Zealand to start shooting a young adult TV show.

"A lot of people enjoyed the show, and I had fun doing horseback riding and that sort of thing, but I'd go home and cry every night. I was dealing with grief, but it was also this feeling that I wasn't aligned with something that felt truly fulfilling. I got done with that show, once they cancelled it after two seasons, and I said, 'I would rather not work as an actor than ever do something like that again.'"