On March 10, 2010, Corey Haim, one of the main celebrities from the movie The Lost Boys, passed away due to natural causes (a number of disorders of the heart and arteries, in addition to pneumonia). The cause of death was originally speculated to be a drug overdose, though the coroner found no factors in his death that could be attributed to an overdose. He was 38 years old. Haim's death probably comes as no surprise to people by now. Not because everybody expected him to pass away at such an early age. He did have a history of drug abuse, and I'm sure it had crossed people's minds in the past. But it mainly comes as no surprise because it marks yet another strange death in Hollywood, in what seems to be some kind of weird series of events in the past 2 years that have taken the lives of many other major stars whom nobody expected to pass away so soon, including Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, David Carradine, and most recently, Gary Coleman. I was a moderate Corey Haim fan myself, so I thought I'd reflect on his passing and talk about some of his memorable roles that I enjoyed seeing him, along with some of the movies he appeared in that I grew up with.

Corey Haim was one of the most recognized childhood actors of the 80's. He appeared alongside Corey Feldman in many movies, probably because they seemed to fit so well together on the big screen. The Lost Boys was his most well known film, in which he starred alongside Jason Patrick, Kiefer Sutherland, as well as Feldman (who played one half of the notorious Frog Brothers). He was really the main star of the movie though, and was an excellent actor even though he was at such a young age then. My favorite scene was when his Grandpa walked into his room and placed a dead stuffed beaver on the dresser beside his bed. His face staring back at the beaver's for that brief moment was hilarious.

Another movie he's well known for was Lucas, in which he starred opposite a young Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder. He basically played the role of the school outcast who was smaller than all the other guys on the football team, but had a lot of courage and heart. Charlie Sheen's character was one of the only ones on the team that accepted him and considered him a friend, though there were a few times when Lucas became jealous of him and that created a few dramatic scenes. Upon Haim's passing, professional critic Roger Ebert stated "RIP Corey Haim, I loved Lucas so much".

One overlooked movie of his that I don't see too many people mentioning now is Stephen King's movie adaptation of Silver Bullet. Haim played a wheelchair bound kid named Marty Coslaw who, along with his sister, sets out to find and expose a werewolf who is terrorizing a small town in Maine. They team up with their Uncle Red (played by Gary Busey) to slay the werewolf towards the end of the movie. This was definitely one of my favorite and most memorable movies of his, because I remember seeing it as a child and being scared to death. One scene in particular that gave me nightmares for months was one where Haim's character is on a wooden bridge late at night setting off fireworks and the werewolf tries to attack him from out of the darkness. He shoots a bottle rocket into the werewolf's eye and hightails it out of there. I still get chills when I think about that scene and how it traumatized me the first time I watched it. The fear on Haim's face as the werewolf ran towards him was totally realistic and did a great job of showcasing his acting abilities.

Corey Haim had declined in popularity after most of these movies, and as a teen, he began experimenting with drugs which quickly turned into addictions. He was constantly trying to overcome his drug habits, though nobody can really say that this was the reason his popularity in movies declined. His onscreen co-star, Corey Feldman, who was probably equally as popular in the 80's, also experienced a decline in movie role offers and popularity. This is what sometimes happens to child stars as they get older and production companies take them off the top shelf. Regardless, I'm sure everybody who lived through the 80's was depressed when they heard about Haim's death, and he will definitely be missed.