Corey Haim Was Betrayed By Those Closest To Him
Corey Haim Was Betrayed By Those Closest To Him
When Corey Haim first revealed the story of the horrific treatment he suffered as a child star, many believed he was talking about Charlie Sheen. Ultimately, even more information came out after his untimely death, and the truth was much darker than anybody knew. Corey Haim could be considered a classic, tragic poster boy for child actors who failed to launch as adults. While it was addiction that eventually claimed his life, there are several sinister accusations that help to explain Haim’s tragic fall from grace.
Growing up, Corey’s mother noticed something worrisome about her son; he lacked confidence and seemed painfully introverted. If you are a shy teenager, the last place you want to be is in the spotlight, but his mother believed that thrusting him onto a stage would cure his shyness. She signed him up for improv classes and even mime lessons. Unlike Corey, his older sister, Carrie, was the one who genuinely wanted to act. It soon became his responsibility to accompany her to auditions. While Carrie was met mostly with rejection, Corey experienced the opposite reaction. Even though he wasn’t auditioning, producers consistently wanted him. He started with some commercials and then secured his first role in a Canadian educational television show called The Edison Twins.
It wouldn’t be long before he made the massive leap to Hollywood. In 1984, when he was thirteen years old, he won a role in a thriller called Firstborn. In the film, Corey plays the son of a woman who begins seeing a not-so-nice guy named Sam, played by Peter Weller. Although this should have been an exciting milestone for Corey, the set of the film proved to be truly terrifying, all thanks to his co-star’s disturbing scare tactics. On his first day on set, Corey made the mistake of trying to compliment Peter Weller on his acting. Weller, who played the boy’s violent stepfather in the movie, grabbed the barely teenage Corey, threw him against a wall, and demanded that he never speak to him again on set. Weller later blamed his behavior on his method acting, but Corey found it hard to recover from the ordeal. Even though his parents had divorced in 1982, Corey was still deeply hurting. At a crew party for the movie, he watched as his parents danced, but not with each other. Upon seeing his parents with other partners, he burst into tears.
After a handful of small roles, Corey finally secured a lead part in 1985’s Silver Bullet. Then, he won a Young Artist Award for his performance in the television movie A Time to Live, starring alongside Liza Minnelli. Once Corey hired a Hollywood agent, he stepped into a lead role almost immediately. The film Lucas came out in 1986, and Corey was the titular character. Years later, his friend and fellow eighties actor Corey Feldman said that there was some serious trouble on the set of Lucas. Feldman alleges that co-star Charlie Sheen molested Corey Haim sometime during the shoot. Of course, Sheen denied these allegations, and he had someone surprising in his corner: believe it or not, it was Corey’s sister, Carrie, who stood up for Sheen. She claimed that Sheen was too busy with her to be messing with her little brother. The accusation against the actor seemed to disappear. Then, in 2017, Sheen was once again accused of assaulting Corey Haim while filming Lucas. This time, the accusation came from actor Dominic Brascia, who worked with and became friends with Corey on the set of The Lost Boys. Corey’s mother, Judy, decided to speak out. She claimed that nothing could have happened on the set of Lucas because she would have known about it. She then accused Dominic Brascia of being the one who actually abused her son. This sounded exactly like what Sheen needed to hear, and that is why some people believe he paid her to make that statement.
In spite of what may or may not have happened on the set of Lucas, Corey’s performance ignited significant interest in his talent. With all the excitement surrounding his career, the young actor decided to leave Canada and move to Los Angeles. Around this time, Joel Schumacher was looking for young actors for his vampire film, The Lost Boys. Corey was soon cast, and he met someone who would change his life: another Corey, by the name of Feldman. Most of the other actors in The Lost Boys were old enough to party, but the two Coreys just hung out together watching movies. A friendship began to blossom, but it was also a friendship destined for incredible highs and unspeakable lows.
The Lost Boys turned out to be a massive hit, and many still regard it as a cinematic classic. The film was also the starting point of a film partnership between Haim and Feldman. It was at this point that people started calling them “The Two Coreys.” Haim had found a friend and someone to star in movies with; what could go wrong? In short, everything. The director of their second film together, License to Drive, Greg Beaman, said that the Coreys liked to goof around on set, and sometimes they would disappear altogether, but he did add that they always showed up for work on time. It sounded like just a couple of teenagers having fun, but there was something much darker going on behind the scenes.
License to Drive required Haim to drive a car, but there was a problem: he only had a learner’s permit, which meant there had to be an adult in the car when he was driving to keep within the law. The producers had an adult hidden in the backseat whenever Haim had to drive. However, it turned out there were other reasons for him not being suitable to drive a car. He later said that while making the film, his struggle with addiction was already a serious issue. During a stint in rehab, doctors gave him prescription medication to deal with the withdrawal symptoms. Thus began a serious issue with Valium; the young actor began popping up to eighty-five pills a day. Fans were starting to notice that Haim had a drug problem, and this had a negative effect on his movies, as nobody wanted to see them anymore.
After losing a good portion of his fan base, Haim started to make direct-to-video films. In one of them, his co-star was his girlfriend, Nicole Eggert of Baywatch fame. Her days were spent on set, but her nights were spent doing something entirely different. She and Haim spent most nights in the emergency room dealing with his addiction. The two did eventually get engaged but broke up before tying the knot. In spite of his addiction problems, Haim still had a fair chunk of change in the bank and decided it was time to get a decent place to live. He found a mansion in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. For some reason, he bought the house with his manager, Michael Bass. Sharing a house with his business manager was a mistake from the beginning. Bass had spent two years in prison after being convicted of swindling and didn’t seem to have learned his lesson. Bass intentionally rushed the purchase of the house so he and Haim could host a charity benefit for Toys for Tots. According to sources, the benefit was a big scam, but this was only the first red flag of many regarding the manager.
About a year after moving into the house together, Haim tried to fire Bass as his manager, but Bass was not leaving. Haim ended up not just firing him, but also firing at him with a BB gun. Bass went to the authorities, and Haim ended up behind bars. The other Corey had to swoop in and pay two hundred and fifty dollars to bail him out. A year after this episode, Haim’s friend Corey Feldman defended Michael Jackson as he faced disturbing allegations in court. When Jackson settled out of court with his thirteen-year-old accuser, he wanted to thank Feldman for his support. He invited Feldman and Haim to spend time at his Neverland Ranch. This was the first time Haim had met Jackson, and this friendship was headed for controversy.
Over the next years, Haim and Feldman appeared in a large number of mediocre, straight-to-video films. In an effort to get back into the mainstream, Haim auditioned for a part in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. He probably hoped that Schumacher would remember the success they shared when they made The Lost Boys together. Apparently not, because Schumacher cast Chris O’Donnell to play Batman’s sidekick instead. Clearly, Haim was counting on help from friends like Schumacher, but his behavior made this impossible. Still hurting from his failure to get the part in Batman, he agreed to appear in Feldman’s directorial debut, Busted. During filming, his addiction spiraled out of control. Even though the film was a silly, low-budget comedy, Feldman took it seriously. He realized that he couldn’t have a lead actor who was frequently absent and even occasionally high on set. Feldman had to fire his best friend.
In 1996, Haim was about to make the film Paradise Bar and needed to fill out his insurance form. He hesitated over the question about any pre-existing medical conditions because addiction was on the list. He didn’t tick the box, and trouble soon followed. When the producers realized they had a user on their set, they checked Haim’s insurance form. They then got Lloyd’s of London to sue him, and he had to pay them three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, all for not ticking a box. Haim simply had to add the money he owed Lloyd’s of London to a pile of other debts. He owed the IRS one hundred thousand dollars and another one hundred thousand dollars to various other creditors. And what about his assets? He had one hundred bucks in cash, an Alfa Romeo Spider, his clothes, and a small pension fund. To make matters worse, he was essentially unemployable due to his addiction problems. In July of 1997, he did the only thing that he could: he filed for bankruptcy to try to get out of his financial hole.
He returned to Canada, where he made a film called Without Malice, filmed in a remote part of Saskatchewan. The tiny town only had one bar, and apparently, Haim was there until closing time almost every night. He also behaved strangely on set; he would constantly stop the filming in order to call home and make sure his dog was still alive. This erratic behavior made him stand out, but not in a good way. By 2001, he had hit rock bottom, and E! True Hollywood Story was there to help rub it in his face. The television special showed him living in Santa Monica in a simple apartment with his mother. A local pawnbroker told a story of Haim begging for three dollars just so he could buy a slice of pizza.
In 2003, comedian David Spade made the film Dicky Roberts: Former Child Star. While Dicky Roberts is a piece of fiction, the film is populated with many real stars who failed to make a successful leap to adult stardom. Haim and Feldman are both in it, along with some of the kids from The Brady Bunch, Eight is Enough, and others. For Haim, it was a way to make some much-needed cash, even though he wasn’t really making serious movies anymore. In 2006, VH1 ranked him as number eight in their list of greatest teen stars. This gave him an idea; if people were still interested in him after all these years, what about a reality television show about the two Coreys? The idea was to have Haim living with Feldman and his wife, and watch as Haim tries to get his career going again. Audiences who tuned in to The Two Coreys got a shock; they barely recognized the former teen heartthrob, as Haim’s addictions had severely altered the way he looked. But this ended up being the least eye-opening aspect of the show. The series was about to open up some very real and painful wounds, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
At some point in the show, he opened up about a man who touched him inappropriately when he was fourteen. The man was a friend of Feldman’s, and Feldman knew about the situation. He knew about it for the two years that it continued. After this startling disclosure, the camaraderie between Haim and Feldman disappeared, and the two actors took a hiatus from the show. Winning a Canadian Gemini award for his work on the show didn’t help him economically, so he fell back on his last resort. He attempted to sell tufts of his own hair and even a tooth in order to make money. The failing actor needed something to hope for, so he must have felt pretty excited when he heard they were making a sequel to The Lost Boys. Surely, he wouldn’t even have to audition; after all, he was an original “Lost Boy.” When Haim asked the producers when they wanted him on set, their reaction devastated him. There was no role for him in the Lost Boys sequel. The producers did offer him a cameo, but he showed up on the set impaired, and they sent him home. This apparently served as a wakeup call, and he resolved to do better.
Against all odds, Haim did actually become a busy actor once again. When the third installment of The Lost Boys franchise came calling, Haim said he didn’t have time to participate; he was busy with films like Shark City, Crank: High Voltage, American Sunset, and Decisions. Haim was now asking for a clean set in order to avoid temptations, and it seemed to be working. Early in 2010, Haim became ill and complained of having flu-like symptoms. A doctor made a house call and concluded that there was nothing to worry about; he just had the flu. A few days after the doctor’s visit, he got out of bed but fell directly onto his knees. When his mother found him, he was unconscious. She immediately called for help, and paramedics rushed him to the hospital. In the early hours of the next day, thirty-eight-year-old Corey Haim was dead.
The doctors called it an accidental overdose. It turned out that Haim had used false names to get prescriptions for medication. It’s no surprise doctors assumed it was his misuse of these drugs that caused his death, but the official cause was said to be damage to his lungs and pneumonia. Sadly, Haim’s mother didn’t have the money for a funeral. Fortunately, the city of Toronto had a fund for destitute cases. In addition to this, a memorabilia site where he had sold some personal items stepped up to help pay. In the end, however, it was the funeral home itself that paid to lay him to rest.
Once it was over, the tragic question arose: what had happened to Corey Haim? Ten years after his death, Corey Feldman released a documentary about the lives of the two Coreys. In it, there are allegations against many men who Feldman says preyed on one or both of them. Feldman also claims that there is a group called “Wolfpack” that works on discrediting victims like Haim and himself. While many people find Feldman’s accusations far-fetched, others believe that something sinister happened to him and Feldman. Feldman says that his visit to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch with Haim consisted mostly of go-kart rides and watching movies. Years later, something more disquieting rose to the surface. The producer of The Two Coreys, Ed Meyer, says that he has a recording of Haim saying that Jackson had touched him sometime after that initial meeting. Feldman has since stopped defending the now-deceased Jackson. He still contends that he and Haim were victims of high-profile predators, and he is convinced that Hollywood just wants to brush what happened to the two teen stars under the carpet. He may have a point. In the year of Haim’s passing, the producers of the Academy Awards omitted his name from the “In Memoriam” section of the Oscars. The forgetting had already begun.
What specific aspects of Corey Haim’s life story are you interested in exploring further to help you better understand the systemic issues in the entertainment industry?
