Hollywood's Lost Boy who never grew up
It was oddly, and tragically, appropriate that Corey Haim died in Los Angeles. The actor's life story was such a quintessential parable of a Hollywood rise and fall that, had he not lived it, the California dream factory would surely have written it.
Haim found global fame at the age of 15, starring as the cute, feisty hero Sam in tongue-in-cheek vampire movie The Lost Boys. He also found drugs, smoking his first joint on set before progressing to cocaine, crack and a range of prescription medication.
He died this week from an overdose of prescription drugs, aged just 38. Recent pictures showed Haim's once-plump, cheeky face ravaged by time and excess. He looked tired, broken-down and older than he was.
Ironically, the tag-line for his most famous movie partly read: "Never grow old. Never die." Corey Haim did both, though in one way, he never really grew up at all.
Just 15 when The Lost Boys was released in 1987, Haim's performance earned him award nominations and critical kudos. Sadly, it was all downhill from there, on-screen and off.
He never married and decent movie roles quickly dried up. He appeared in a string of poor, straight-to-video productions, many with Lost Boys co-star and namesake Corey Feldman (of whom more later). There were sporadic attempts at career resurrection: he appeared in television, video games and promos for pop bands.
Drugs were a persistent bane in Haim's life. At one point he was consuming 85 Valiums a day, not counting the myriad other pills he was popping; by his own admission, doctors were amazed he was still alive.
By the noughties he was reduced to the last refuge of the faded star: appearing as himself in reality TV shows and ironic movie cameos.
Strangely, though, he's not the only member of The Lost Boys' young, attractive, talented cast not to live up to his early promise.
Jason Patric, who played the main character Michael, was 21 when the film was made. With his brooding good looks and obvious acting strengths, superstardom seemed assured. It didn't quite work out like that, and Patric's career was dogged by ill-luck and bad choices.
He turned down the lead in huge-grossing movies such as The Firm and Passion of the Christ; he made several outright poor films, like Speed 2; his scenes were even cut from artful anti-war epic The Thin Red Line.
However, he has redeemed himself with a number of fine performances in worthwhile pictures: Expired, My Sister's Keeper, In the Valley of Elah. Patric, who acted in Bash at Dublin's Gate Theatre in 2001, also turned in superb shifts earlier in his career in cop dramas Narc and Rush.
On the personal level, Patric was arrested for being drunk in public and resisting arrest in Texas six years ago. The charges were later dropped and Patric sued the arresting officer, though he lost the case.
The main vampire/villain, Kiefer Sutherland's story is classic Hollywood, too, though in a slightly different way: his dad is the legendary Donald Sutherland, and Kiefer was therefore born into movie royalty.
Aged 21 during filming, he's the most famous of The Lost Boys and has enjoyed huge success since 2001 with the planet-devouring TV drama 24. But in the intervening years he also endured his share of disappointments.
His engagement to Julia Roberts sensationally ended in 1991, after he was caught out in a tryst with a stripper. She fled to Ireland with her new beau -- bizarrely enough, none other than Jason Patric.
Off-screen, Sutherland has battled drink for years, with reports of drunk and disorderly behaviour as recently as last May, when he was arrested for headbutting a fashion designer at a charity fundraiser. The incident was later smoothed over.
The troubled Canadian showed up sloshed at Elton John's 2009 Oscars party, and served 48 days in jail for drink-driving in late 2007. He's also recently reported to have lost the bones of a million dollars to a con artist.
The seeming curse of The Lost Boys goes on: Corey Feldman, also just 15 when he played vampire-hunter Edgar Frog, has battled drug addiction throughout his adult life.
An attempted music career floundered, and Feldman, like Haim, eventually ended up under the microscope in reality TV shows, one of them with the other Corey. He's also had two failed marriages.
Apart from the already-established Dianne Wiest, none of the remaining Lost Boys cast achieved much success. Most were never heard of again, and Jami Gertz, who played love interest Star, turned down the role of Monica in the mega-popular sitcom Friends.
Director Joel Schumacher continued to work post-Lost Boys, including the 2003 biopic of Veronic Guerin, starring Cate Blanchett, which received good reviews. He never made a film as well-loved as the vampire flick, though, and his Batman and Robin is consistently voted the worst movie ever.
Corey Haim managed to avoid that one, but his films won't be judged too kindly. The actor himself, however, is remembered fondly by fans and colleagues, as witnessed by the recent deluge of affectionate comments.
Most agree that this "tormented soul", as Feldman called him on Thursday, was a victim of his success at an early age; the classic tale of "too much, too young". Lost Boy, indeed.
See Ken Sweeney's Diary, page 12
- Darragh McManus
Irish Independent
