[Deathwatch] Brad Renfro, actor, 25

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Former Child Star Renfro Dead
by Natalie Finn
Tue, 15 Jan 2008

Brad Renfro, the former one-to-watch whose acting work was often
overshadowed by reports of drug abuse and legal troubles, was found
dead Tuesday morning at his Los Angeles home. He was 25. 

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said that paramedics pronounced
him dead at 9:00 a.m. after friends he had spent the previous evening
with called 911. Cause of death has not yet been determined and an
autopsy could take place as early as Wednesday.

Coroner's Office chief investigator Craig Harvey said that Renfro had
been drinking alcohol last night but it's too soon to tell whether that
was a factor.

Renfro made his big-screen debut opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Susan
Sarandon in the adaptation of the John Grisham bestseller The Client
when he was 12. He worked steadily over the years but never quite
recaptured the buzz that surrounded him as a child star as reports of
his struggles with substance abuse outweighed all other publicity.

An L.A. Police Department spokesman said there was no suspicion of foul
play, but declined to say whether drugs or related paraphernalia were
found in the actor's home.

Renfro's more recent behavior, however, suggested that the Knoxville,
Tennessee, native was working hard to get his life back on track. 

About a month after agreeing to enter a drug-diversion program in March
2006 in order to avoid jail time on an attempted heroin-possession rap,
he told reporters that he had 30 days of hard-won sobriety and was
"tired of paying the consequences" for his destructive behavior.

He had previously served 10 days in jail on an unrelated DUI charge.

"It wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be," Renfro said, referring
to the court-ordered detox program. "It's helped me greatly. It's
definitely been an eye-opener...I'm going to stay clean, and, in turn,
it will help me spiritually and with work. It's going to help me in all
phases of my life."

"He was working hard on his sobriety," Renfro's attorney, Richard
Kaplan, told the Associated Press Thursday afternoon. "He was doing
well. He was a nice person."

The actor had recently wrapped shooting on the feature adaptation of
Bret Easton Ellis' 1995 novel The Informers, costarring Winona Ryder,
Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke and Brandon Routh. 

"Brad was an exceptionally talented young actor and our time spent with
him was thoroughly enjoyable," Marco Weber, president of the film's
production company Senator Entertainment , said in a statement.

Most recently, Renfro was spied as a troubled murder suspect in a 2006
episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and he appeared in the 2005
time-travel thriller The Jacket with Adrien Brody.

Even as a tween star, Renfro tended to stick to the dark side when it
came to choosing roles.

After a bright-eyed turn as Huckleberry Finn in the Disney film Tom and
Huck, he went on to play a child-abuse victim in Sleepers and a boy who
learns that his friendly old neighbor played by Ian McKellen is
actually a Nazi war criminal in Apt Pupil.

His other film credits include Bully, Ghost World and a number of
lesser-known indie projects.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary