Often troubled actor Brad Renfro was found dead Tuesday in his home. He was 25 years old. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 9 a.m., said Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. The cause of death was not immediately determined, Harvey said, but an autopsy could be conducted as early as Wednesday. It was reported that Renfro had been out drinking with friends the evening before his death.
Renfro’s career started at the age of 12 when he landed a plum role in the John Grisham adaptation of “The Client” with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon. Other high profile roles soon followed and Renfro became well known for being a quality actor.
Unfortunately, Renfro struggled constantly with drugs and alcohol and had multiple run-ins with the law. Repeated fines and jail time had Renfro eager for rehabilitation, according to his own words, but he was never able to fully clean himself up.
Renfro recently completed a role in “The Informers,” a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel that stars Winona Ryder, Brandon Routh and Billy Bob Thornton. His other credits include “Sleepers,” “Deuces Wild,” “Apt Pupil” and “The Jacket.”
How sad! The celebrity life must be a tough one, especially for child actors. So many of them are troubled by the time they reach their 20’s.
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Yeah, I think when you start living some kind of out-of-touch, fairly tell life from the age of 12, it must be difficult to ever regain a firm grip on reality.
I dunno, Screech still seems pretty normal…well if you exclude that he had to beg people for money so he wouldnt lose his house last year.
No dude. I saw him on Celebrity Fat Club or something like that and he was pretty messed up in the head. Plus there’s the porno thing.