Farewell, Corey Haim

The ‘80s heartthrob lived up to the title of his biggest movie hit, The Lost Boys, and was found dead of an apparent overdose this morning.

-Kathy Campbell

Hollywood is like the perfect storm when it comes to drug addiction. When you become a star, you have shady characters who offer you drugs, more than enough money to buy whatever substances you want, and people who turn a blind eye to your indiscretions as long as you are making them a profit.

It’s been the story of so many stars, but child actors seem to have been the biggest casualties. Corey Haim, the ’80s teen heartthrob who starred in films like The Lost Boys, and was found dead this morning of an apparent overdose, is the latest victim. He was 38.

If you’re a certain age, you remember Haim and his pal Corey Feldman as the Two Coreys. They starred together in seven films including License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream.

But while Feldman appears to have come through the early stardom wringer relatively unscathed (apart from a brief friendship with Michael Jackson), Haim — who had gone into showbiz after his mom put Corey in acting class to help him get over his shyness — got hooked from an early age. He smoked his first joint on The Lost Boys at the age of 15, and drank beer on the set of Lucas.

“I lived in Los Angeles in the '80s, which was not the best place to be,” Haim admitted in a 2007 interview. “I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack. 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."

Haim was in and out of rehab 15 times, and in 2001, at the age of 30, he suffered a drug-induced stroke. He reportedly cleaned up his act when he moved to Toronto three years later, but by 2006, when he starred in the reality show The Two Coreys with his pal Feldman, it was clear that he had fallen off the wagon again.