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::FILM NEWS::
LE Newsletter - March 11, 2010
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‘Lost Boys’ actor Corey Haim dies at 38
Source: www.thestar.com -
Robert Jablon
(March 10, 2010) LOS ANGELES, CALIF.—Corey
Haim,
a 1980s teen heartthrob for his roles in Lucas and
 The
Lost Boys whose career was blighted by drug abuse, has died.
He was 38.
The Toronto-born actor died at 2:15 a.m. Wednesday at a Burbank
hospital, Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt. Cheryl MacWillie
said.
An autopsy will determine the cause of death and there were no
other details, she said. Sgt. Michael Kammert said there’s no
evidence of foul play.
Haim had flu-like symptoms before he died and was getting
over-the-counter and prescription medications, Sgt. William Mann
said. The cause of death is unknown, Mann said.
“He could have succumbed to whatever (illness) he had or it
could have been drugs. Who knows?” Mann said. “He has had a drug
problem in the past.”
Haim was taken by ambulance to the hospital from an apartment in
Los Angeles near Burbank. The enormous complex is known as
Oakwood and is popular with young actors, Kammert said.
Haim acknowledged his struggle with drug abuse to The Sun
in 2004.
“I was working on Lost Boys when I smoked my first
joint,” he told the British tabloid.
“I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to
crack,” he said.
Haim said he went into rehabilitation and was put on
prescription drugs. He took both stimulants and sedatives such
as Valium.
“I started on the downers which were a hell of a lot better than
the uppers because I was a nervous wreck,” he said. “But one led
to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it
was about 85 a day.”
In 2007, he told ABC’s Nightline that drugs hurt his
career.
“I feel like with myself I ruined myself to the point where I
wasn’t functional enough to work for anybody, even myself. I
wasn’t working,” he said.
The baby-faced Haim got his start in television commercials at
10 and earned a good reputation for his work in such films as
1985’s Murphy’s Romance and his portrayal of Liza
Minelli’s dying son in the 1985 television film A Time to
Live.
The same year, he began appearing in the CBC TV series The
Edison Twins.
His career peaked and he became a teen heartthrob with his roles
in the 1986 movie Lucas, and The Lost Boys, in
which he battled vampires.
In later years, he made a few TV appearances and had several
direct-to-video movies. He also had a handful of recent movies
that have not yet been released.
But in 1997 he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,
listing debts for medical expenses and more than $200,000 in
state and federal taxes.
His assets included a few thousand dollars in cash, clothing and
royalty rights.
He was somewhat of a fixture in Toronto, where he reportedly
frequented a neighbourhood bar and was not shy about approaching
strangers to discuss attempts to get back into shape and return
to the spotlight.
In recent years, Haim appeared in the A&E reality TV show The
Two Coreys with his friend Corey Feldman. It was cancelled
in 2008 after two seasons. Feldman later said Haim’s drug abuse
strained their working and personal relationships.
In a 2007 interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, Haim called
himself “a chronic relapser for the rest of my life.”
With files from The Canadian Press |
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::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
