Brad Renfro (1982–2008)

Born: July 25, 1982 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Died: January 15, 2008 (age 25) in Los Angeles, California, USA

He was discovered at age 10 by director Joel Schumacher and was cast in the motion picture The Client (1994), which starred Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Although this would be his zenith, he went on to appear in other films, including The Cure (1995), Tom and Huck (1995), Sleepers (1996), and Apt Pupil (1998).

Addiction problems in his teens and early 20s led to several police arrests and hampered his career. He died of a drug overdose in January 2008, aged 25.

The advice I have for people wanting to get into acting … I would say, stay the hell away from the party scene. Anything you put in front of your goal, and especially something like that, whether it’s too much gambling, too much food, too much (sic) cold beers on the weekend – anything that you put in front of the prize is going to end up getting in the way and hurting you in the end. Unfortunately, a lot of people are not lucky enough to traverse through things like that and come out of things on the other side. A lot of people don’t make it. They don’t live through it. (2007)