![]() ![]() Worst of all the two shared the dark secret - though this would not become known for 20 years - of reported molestations perpetrated by members of their inner circle. Both actors were from broken homes and were struggling with increased drug usage. Feldman was seen as edgier Haim the sweeter pretty boy.The unfortunate reality behind the glittery image of Feldman and Haim's lives was that both young men were in considerable turmoil. The duo had their share of detractors - critics and pundits lambasted the films and the performers themselves as promising actors-now turned-featherweights - but for the tail end of the 1980s, Feldman and Haim were riding high as the fabled "Coreys." In fact, no other teen idols of that time even came close, with teen girls (even some boys) forever debating which "Corey" was the better of the two. A modest hit with The Coreys' young female audience, it was followed by the light fantasy "Dream a Little Dream" (1989), a body-swapping comedy with Jason Robards and Piper Laurie in which Feldman finally had the lead. The first of these, "License to Drive" (1989), set the template for most of their subsequent joint projects: Haim or Feldman alternately playing a hapless, lovelorn adolescent who turns to his streetwise pal (again, either Haim or Feldman) to help him out of a particular jam - in the case of "Drive," how to romance popular girl Heather Graham without the benefit of a driver's license. Their chemistry in the Schumacher film was palpable, and with gossip magazines making the most of their off-screen friendship, it seemed only logical that they should continue the partnership in more films. Feldman's character - a grave, comic book-loving vampire hunter - solidified his status as an offbeat comic presence, but it was the presence of a co-star, fellow teen star Corey Haim, that made the film significant in both the best and worst of ways.Like Feldman, the Canadian-born Haim was a child star who had experienced critical and box office acclaim at an early age thanks to the Gen-X favorite, "Lucas" (1986), and the success of "The Lost Boys" placed him and Feldman at the top of the teen idol heap. The following year, however, he was a bonafide movie star thanks to "The Lost Boys" (1987), Joel Schumacher's clever and stylish horror film about teen vampires plaguing a small California coastal town. But it was in Rob Reiner's 1986 classic "Stand by Me" that Feldman showed the promise of real acting talent by holding his own with a young River Phoenix, playing an emotionally troubled young man on a quest with friends to see a dead body. The chief arrows in his acting quiver - unconventional good looks and a knack for playing teens too clever for their own good - helped to put him on the teen idol map, and by 1985, Feldman was riding high with significant roles in such hits as the Steven Spielberg-produced adventure, "Goonies" (1985). Feldman's fortunes changed in the mid-1980s with a string of notable supporting roles in popular, teen-oriented features like "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" (1984), which cast him as the likely successor to maniac Jason Voorhees' killing spree, and "Gremlins" (1984), where he unwittingly unleashes a horde of monsters with an accidental drop of water on the film's lovable critter, Gizmo. In interviews conducted in 2003, he alleged physical abuse by his parents, and was legally emancipated from them when he turned 15. Off-screen, however, Feldman's life was less than Cleaver-esque. The majority of his work came via episodic television and harmless TV movies like "Still the Beaver" (CBS, 1983), which cast him as the son of the now-adult Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers). Wells in a museum however, features would remain a rarity during Feldman's adolescent years, save for a voiceover turn as the young fox, Copper, in the animated Disney classic, "The Fox and the Hound" (1981). His feature film debut came in 1979's "Time After Time" as a boy who meets Malcolm McDowell's H.G. His onscreen life began at the age of three with an appearance in a television commercial for McDonald's that later earned a Clio a reported 100 advertisements preceded guest shots on television series, then a stint as a series regular on the short-lived "Bad News Bears" sitcom (CBS, 1979-1980). Born Corey Scott Feldman in Chatsworth, CA he was one of five children raised by musician Bob Feldman and his wife, Sheila Goldstein, who later served as Feldman's manager in his childhood years. ![]()
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