Actor and ’80s teen idol Corey Haim was pronounced dead between 3:30 and 4:30 AM Wednesday morning at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California. According to first responders, he appears to have suffered an overdose, though Coroner’s Lt. Cheryl MacWillie says an autopsy will determine the official cause of death.
Haim was found unresponsive inside an Oakwood apartment. His mother was apparently with him at the time. Haim has long struggled with drug addiction. After spending time in rehab in the 2000, Haim explained that “I started on the downers which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck. But one led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day – the doctors could not believe I was taking that much. And that was just the Valium – I’m not talking about the other pills I went through.” But by 2004 Haim appeared to have kicked the habit, settling down in his native Toronto. In response to a Sun Newspaper inquiring into what happened to the teen star he said – “I’m clean, sober, humble and happy.”
Corey Haim started his career on a Canadian television show called The Edison Twins. Haim made his silver screen debut in the 1984 feature film, “Firstborn” – a film that also starred Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr. His big break was “Lucas,” also starring Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder, in which he played the title character. He is most famous, however, for the partnership with Corey Feldman which began on the cult hit “The Lost Boys.” “The Coreys” starred in several more feature films and straight to video titles. After a long struggle to regain the spotlight in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Haim reignited his career in 2006 with the A&E reality show, “The Two Coreys,” another partnership with Feldman.
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Corey Haim was one of those guys that guys wanted to be friends with and girls wanted to be with. He was always so happy on film, in such works as “License to Drive,” and in the years the followed, he found himself driving the wrong way on the highway of child stardom. No one will ever know why Haim, with the world at his feet, chose the path that he did, but one can only hope that – as parents – we try to make sure our children don’t make the same mistakes.
But, at least family and friends can take solace in the fact that Haim has brought, and through DVD will continue to bring, much joy to kids of all ages.
Corey Haim was 38 years old when he died.
