Corey Haim is dead...

So I learned this afternoon, via text message from a fellow employee, that Toronto's own Corey Haim had died at the age of 38. This got me thinking...wasn't he already dead??? I mean, who has heard anything from Corey Haim in years? Then I remembered that fabulously sad reality show The Two Coreys. If you have never seen this show, please find a way to download it somewhere. It's like watching a car crash over and over again. The other Corey, of course, is Corey Feldman. The two Coreys made several films together in the mid to late 80's ranging from passable (The Lost Boys) to down right imbecilic (Dream A Little Dream). The reality show was all about Haim trying to get his life back together after spending yet another stint in re-hab. He tried to get back into the business of "show" with little help from his former friend and joint-toking comrade. Feldman wanted nothing to do with him because of a falling out they had many years before. But with the help of therapy the two Coreys became...well...not so much better. It was disturbing to watch a bloated Haim go on and on about the troubles in his life. How being a child actor was a curse for him rather than a gift. How he was abused (sexually?) because of his high profile status. I felt, as I watched this, I wasn't sure if all these stories were true or dreamt up for dramatic value. I understand how most child actors get a false sense of being. How they are forced to grow up too fast and make certain decisions that most of us don't have to worry about until our late teens. But it also seems that every one of these child actors don't know when to turn off the performance. Life to them is always in front of the camera. When I was very young, 5 or 6 years old, I used to wonder where the camera was in my house. I thought people in other cities were watching me, as I used to watch Days Of Our Lives with my grandmother. Maybe these child actors thought the same thing, and never realized that the camera wasn't there. It is sad that someone with great promise in his youth (his performance in Lucas was outstanding) had to end up as just another in a long list of child actors that lost their way and ended up dead, and probably alone. Corey Haim is not the first, and, unfortunately, won't be the last.