It seems that the child star curse is real. It's an all too common story in Hollywood, a world in which children are forced to mature awfully fast. Some of these stars were racking up arrests and rehab stints long after they achieved success as adolescents. Here is a list of some child stars whose lives were cut short.
Heather O'Rourke
Unlike the other stars in this article, her death was related to the effects of an unexpected illness, which began to make her sick in 1987. This photogenic actress was famous for making horror film history when she said the famous line "They're here!" in the 1982 film, Poltergeist. A sequel followed in 1986 and when the third Poltergeist film was being made O'Rourke was on medication. She was fine until February 1, 1988. On that morning she collapsed in her home and was taken to a San Diego hospital, where it was discovered that she had developed an acute intestinal obstruction. Multiple complications followed and she died on the operating table.
River Phoenix
He grabbed the attention of audiences in the 1986 coming of age film, Stand by Me. Memorable roles in Running on Empty and My Own Private Idaho followed. Phoenix collapsed and died of a drug overdose on October 31, 1993, outside of a Los Angeles club. He was twenty-three. At the time of his death, he was close to finishing a new movie, Dark Blood, which was never completed because there were still several scenes to shoot that couldn't be done without him. Fans were left saddened and frustrated that Phoenix could no longer challenge himself as an actor.
Gary Coleman
He may have been small, but was larger than life on television. Coleman was cast as the diminutive Arnold Jackson, one of the two brothers adopted by a wealthy Manhattanite in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. After this show went off the air in 1986, he continued to appear in movies and on television but never regained the towering popularity he once had. His legal and financial troubles increased as the years went by. In 1998 he was charged with assault after he hit a woman who asked for his autograph. Acting work was hard to come by for Coleman, and he declared bankruptcy in 1999. He passed away after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in his home in Santaquin, Utah.
Corey Haim
This Canadian born star achieved fame for his roles in such '80s films as Lucas and The Lost Boys. The latter film cemented his status as a rising star. In the '90s his career nosedived, mainly due to his drug addiction. After years of repeated attempts at rehab, Haim was back in Toronto in 2008 hoping to kickstart his career again with a role in Shark City. He was buried in Thornhill, Ontario in March 2010.
Dana Plato
She was another troubled member of the Diff'rent Strokes cast, and didn't live as long as Gary Coleman. In 1992, long after the show was cancelled, stories about her being on the wrong side of law appeared in the media. She was arrested for the robbery of a Las Vegas video store, and was in and out of rehab. Plato died of a drug overdose on May 8, 1999. She was thirty-four years old and her death was declared a suicide.
Child stars have to cope with a competitive business and adult situations they may not be prepared for, and as this article has shown, not all of them can make a successful transition from child roles to adult roles. Hence, they struggle with drugs, alcohol and depression when a once adoring public doesn't buy their mature selves. Heather O'Rourke made an involuntary exit from the entertainment world, and nobody will ever know what her life would have been like had she lived. Others like Gary Coleman and Dana Plato had to deal with fame that most adults would not know how to handle. One can only hope the child celebrities of today won't repeat these tragic mistakes.
Scott Hayden - Since joining Suite101 in early 2007, I've contributed articles about travel, history and health. My speciality is writing about workplace ...
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