Corey Haim facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Corey Haim
Haim in 2008
Born	Corey Ian Haim (1971-12-23)December 23, 1971 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	March 10, 2010(2010-03-10) (aged 38) Burbank, California, U.S.
Resting place	Pardes Shalom Cemetery, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actor comedian
Years active	1981–2010

Corey Ian Haim (December 23, 1971 – March 10, 2010) was a Canadian actor. He starred in a number of 1980s films, such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy's Romance, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream. His role alongside Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys made him a household name. Known as The Two Coreys, the duo became 1980s icons and appeared together in seven films, later starring in the A&E American reality show The Two Coreys.

Early life

Haim was born on December 23, 1971, in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Judy Haim, an Israeli-born data processor, and Bernie Haim, who worked in sales. In 1982, his parents divorced after 18 years of marriage. He had an older sister, Cari, and a younger half-brother, Daniel Lee, from his father's second marriage. Haim was Jewish; his Hebrew name was Yechezkel Yehudah.

Haim was first raised in Chomedey, Laval, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal), and later grew up in Willowdale, Toronto. There, his mother enrolled him in drama classes in improvisation and mime to help him overcome his shyness. Haim's skill as a hockey player led to his being scouted for the AA Thunderbirds. Haim attended several schools in both Thornhill, Ontario, and North York, Ontario (including North York's Zion Heights Junior High) until grade eight.

Career

Early acting career

After accompanying his sister Cari to auditions, Haim was noticed and was offered roles as a child actor. He began performing in commercials in 1981. Later, he played the role of Larry in the Canadian children's educational comedy television series The Edison Twins.

Haim made his feature film debut in the 1984 thriller Firstborn as a boy whose family comes under threat from his mother's violent boyfriend, played by Peter Weller. Haim's first day of shooting was with Weller, and he attempted to compliment the older actor on his performance. Weller collared Haim, threw him up against a wall, and demanded Haim never speak to him after a take. It took three assistants to separate them. Haim later admitted that he was terrified by the experience. Weller apologized to Haim, saying method acting caused his actions. Regarding co-star Sarah Jessica Parker, Haim recalled:

I was 10, and I'll never forget we went to like a crew party and my mom and dad were like dancing with other people and it was rocky; and I just started crying, whatever, and I remember Sarah pulling me outside with Robert [Downey, Jr.]. And Robert said, you're comin' to live with me.

In 1985, Haim appeared in supporting roles in Secret Admirer and Murphy's Romance, the latter with Sally Field, of whom he was reportedly in awe. Also that year, he had the leading role in Silver Bullet, Stephen King's feature adaptation of his own lycanthropic novella. Haim played a paraplegic 10-year-old boy who warns his uncle (played by Gary Busey) that their town is being terrorized by a werewolf.

Haim began to gain industry recognition, earning his first Young Artist Award for the NBC movie A Time to Live, in which he played Liza Minnelli's character's dying son. At the time, Haim's father was acting as his manager. He turned down a role for Haim in The Mosquito Coast, which was later taken by River Phoenix. Producer Stanley Jaffe approached the father to remark on Haim's gifts, and recommended that he get an agent in Los Angeles.

Hollywood teen stardom

Haim's breakout role came in 1986, when he starred with Kerri Green, Charlie Sheen, and Winona Ryder as the titular character in Lucas. The coming-of-age story, about first love and teen angst, centers on an intelligent misfit who struggles for acceptance after falling for a cheerleader. Haim turned 14 on the set in Chicago, and fell in love with Green, who played his romantic interest in the film. Haim's unrequited love for Green helped inspire his performance, with the real-life dynamics between them expressed on screen.

Director David Seltzer noticed that unlike some of his peers, Haim seemed at ease with his burgeoning heartthrob status: "He took it in stride. Not in a negative way, but he was something of a magnet and he knew it." Haim had read for River Phoenix's role in Stand By Me while eating lunch in director Rob Reiner's backyard, and got the part the same day that he was offered Lucas. He later said he would not have changed his decision.

Haim was nominated for a Young Artist Award for his performance as Lucas, and film critic Roger Ebert gave him a glowing review: "He creates one of the most three-dimensional, complicated, interesting characters of any age in any recent movie. If he can continue to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor. He is that good." Following Lucas, Haim moved to Los Angeles, and starred in the short-lived 1987 television series Roomies with Burt Young.

In 1987, Haim had a featured role as Sam Emerson, the younger of two brothers, a comic-reading teen turned vampire hunter in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys. Though he had seen Lucas, Schumacher initially was not sold on casting Haim. The director was convinced by their first meeting. Shot between the Warner Brothers lot and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, the young cast included Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, and Corey Feldman, and the set was lively.

The Lost Boys was well-received by most critics, made over $32 million at the U.S. box office, and is regarded as a 1980s classic. The performance earned Haim another Young Artist Award nomination as Best Young Male Superstar in a Motion Picture. The film marked his recurring on-screen partnership with Feldman. The two young actors had previously become aware of one another when Haim auditioned for the role of Mouth in The Goonies, which Feldman secured. "The Two Coreys" ascended to become the highest paid teen stars of the 1980s.

In the era of Tiger Beat and Bop, Haim was a favored cover star. His trademark lopsided smile prompted his Never Too Late co-star Cloris Leachman to admonish him: "You know, that smirk you have is cute, but sometimes it looks a little fake. I would definitely practice closing your mouth a little more." He often played underdogs.

Next came License to Drive, co-starring Feldman and Heather Graham, in which Haim played the lead role of Les, whose love life is crippled by a lack of a car. He achieves his wish-fulfillment fantasy of turning his life around on one wild night. "There were some shenanigans behind the scenes," remarked director Greg Beeman of the indulgences of the Two Coreys. "They would disappear sometimes, but they always showed up for work." At the time of the shoot, 16-year-old Haim only had a learner's permit, requiring an adult to be concealed in the back seat of the Cadillac he drove in the movie. The film featured Haim's signature ad-libbing at its height.

Haim was receiving nearly 2,000 fan letters a week and worked to avoid the potentially "psycho" girls who circled the block where he lived in an apartment downstairs from his mother's. License to Drive won Haim his second Young Artist Award (tying Feldman for the Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Fantasy award), and went on to gross over $22 million domestically.

Haim starred in the horror film Watchers, adapted from the Dean R. Koontz novel, in which he played a teen who befriends a highly intelligent dog altered by military research, leading to the two being pursued.

Haim and Feldman next teamed in the metaphysical romantic comedy Dream a Little Dream. Four days before the shoot commenced on January 7, 1988, Haim broke his leg. His character's injury was added to accommodate his cast and resulting limp. After the cast was removed two weeks later, Haim was required to wear a false one for the remainder of the shoot. He semi-improvised his scenes in the film.

Career downturn

In the 1990s , Haim's film career declined into direct-to-video releases.

In 1990, Haim co-starred with Patricia Arquette in the sci-fi actioner Prayer of the Rollerboys, performing many of his own stunts in a tale of a teen who goes undercover to expose a racist gang leader. In 1991, aged 19, he starred in Dream Machine, which received a direct-to-video release, as did Oh, What a Night and The Double 0 Kid, in which Seth Green had a role. In 1996, Haim starred in four more direct-to-video films — Snowboard Academy, Demolition High, Fever Lake and Busted — the last also co-starring and directed by Corey Feldman. He had a small role in the television film Merlin: The Quest Begins. In 1997, he appeared in Never Too Late and the sequel to Demolition High, titled Demolition University (on which he was credited as an executive producer).

The Two Coreys and final years

Haim in 2008

In 2006, Haim was ranked #8 on VH1's list of the Greatest Teen Stars.

In December 2006, Haim began taping a reality show titled The Two Coreys, which reunited him with Feldman. Both were credited as executive producers, and had a measure of creative input. The show premiered on the A&E Network on July 29, 2007, with a second season starting on June 22, 2008.

In July 2008, Haim completed filming on the gambling comedy Shark City in Toronto with Vivica A. Fox, Carlo Rota and David Phillips.

In 2009, Crank: High Voltage was released, which saw Haim sporting a blonde mullet alongside Jason Statham, Amy Smart and Dwight Yoakam. Haim completed two films scheduled for a 2010 release: the thriller American Sunset, in which he played a man who is abducted in the search for his missing wife, and Decisions, shot in December 2009, in which his character is a cop working with troubled kids. After American Sunset wrapped in New Brunswick, Canada on June 18, 2009.

Haim was attached to several films scheduled to go into production in 2010. In his final days, he was working on The Dead Sea, a film in which mercenaries on a naval ship are trapped by zombies.

Personal life=

Haim never married or had any children. He was involved with Who's the Boss actress Alyssa Milano from 1987 to 1990.

Lala Sloatman co-starred with Haim in Watchers (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989), and they dated on and off for two years at the peak of his fame.

Haim was engaged to Baywatch actress Nicole Eggert, with whom he starred in Blown Away (1992) and Just One of the Girls (1993).

Haim was briefly engaged to actress Holly Fields in 1996 and to model Cindy Guyer in 2000.

Haim had a year-long relationship with actress Tiffany Shepis. In October 2008, he stated that the two were engaged and due to marry on May 9, 2009.

Death

On March 10, 2010, after Haim's mother phoned 911, paramedics took Haim from their home to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where he was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. He was 38 years old. The 10-minute 9-1-1 call made by Haim's mother was leaked on the Internet. Haim had been ill with flu-like symptoms for two days before his death. A doctor called on him and took his temperature, but did not suspect serious problems. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said: "As he got out of bed, he felt a little weak and went down to the floor on his knees."

On May 4, 2010, the L.A. County Coroner's office autopsy report revealed that Haim died of diffuse alveolar damage and pneumonia, together with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and coronary arteriosclerosis. The death was ruled a natural death.

Funeral and aftermath

A private Jewish funeral ceremony for Haim took place on March 16, 2010, at Steeles Memorial Chapel in Thornhill, Ontario.

Haim died with very little money, and his mother initially announced that the cost of his funeral would be covered by public funds provided by the city of Toronto as is customary in destitute cases. However, city officials stated that no paperwork had been submitted by the family, who entreated fans to help provide for the burial in an online appeal for funds. A CAN$20,000 contribution was made by a memorabilia site to which Haim had sold items over the years, but the company later canceled the check after it emerged that the funeral home had stepped in to cover the costs from the outset. Haim's personal effects were put up for auction on eBay by a cast member from A Time to Live, whose listings claimed that the family had asked him to sell the items as they needed money for burial expenses.

Haim's body was buried at Pardes Shalom Cemetery in Maple, Ontario.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Corey Haim para niños

• List of Canadian child actors