Actor and one time teen idol Corey Haim has passed away at age 38 from an apparent overdose. The man who met fame, fortune and sadly, his demons in the 1980′s with his partner in madness Corey Feldman, was pronounced dead at his Los Angeles home this morning by LAPD. The actor had recently been suffering from flu-like symptoms and passed out in front of his mother at around 2:30AM, and was pronounced dead at a Burbank hospital a half an hour later.

While Haim had fallen on hard times the past few years, even at one point selling teeth and hair to cover his debts courtesy of addiction, he will be best remembered as the free spirit and adorable teen idol he once was. His career blossomed overnight and his starring roles in films like Lucas and The Lost Boys confirmed that not only was he a heartthrob, but he had the chops to succeed in this business. He partnered with Corey Feldman, the duo was dubbed “The Coreys” by the 80′s media, for seven films, including Lost Boys, License to Drive and my personal favorite,Dream a Little Dream (which I purchased from a local video rental place for $20). “The Coreys” were synonymous with partying, young Hollywood, box office success and 80′s excess. Haim found himself at the end of the decade with a crazy drug habit, fledgling career and an even sadder private life. Haim all but disappeared in the early 90′s with flop after flop at box office and addictions eating away at him.
After a drug induced stroke, Haim found himself on the road to recovery in 2004 and returned in 2007 to the spotlight with his reality show “The Two Coreys“, which followed Feldman and Haim for their quest to move back on top of the Hollywood food chain. The show lasted two seasons and brought the best friends back together and as Defamer ridiculed to the point of not on the reality program, back and ready to work. Haim saw little lift to his career from the program and recently just wrapped up production the thriller, American Sunset. Today, Haim passed away, ending a possible career resurrection and the possibility of a happy ending.

As a child, there were few things better than Corey Haim. His looks, charm and humor were the essential pre-teen package and I would have followed him to the ends of the earth. While someone dying THIS young is tragic and sad, what is really sad about the whole thing is that its not surprising. Haim was a casualty of Hollywood, and by that I mean a child star who was used up until he couldn’t give anymore, and then medicated to hide the pain. Its common practice in Hollywood, but sometimes there are those folks that actually deserve to continue to work, who have a gift and should be respected. Unfortunately, Haim had to battle various demons while attempting to take back his career, and his childhood was riddled with divorce, abuse and overt exposure to adult themes.

The glimmer and hope that was once his signature fell away as time went on and sadly, its not an easy thing to get back. As the similar child star story continues to play out, the pain of being unloved as an adult is sometimes too much for them to handle. And Haim is just another story to add to the growing pile of stars who taken their own lives, consciously or accidentally. Haim is the reason I actually added a category Sadness to my blog, because you could see that deep down all the guy wanted to do was act and entertain the masses. He was not happy with addiction and was even more depressed by his lack of ability to truly kick what ended up taking his life. Hopefully, we can learn the proper way to treat people in this business, avoid tearing them down and learn that medicating does not always “fix” the problem. But I can only assume that this will not be the last sad story I need to recap on this blog. Little boy lost, Corey Haim will be greatly missed and I would like to personally thank him for bringing hours of entertainment to my life. Aloha Corey. And hopefully you can now truly rest.

Let’s remember him this way, shall we?