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Children attain celebrity status all the time. Most times we see only the glamorous lifestyle they lead, the level of fame and money they achieve, and all the love everybody showers on them. All at such a young age, we are totally oblivious to the plight of some of these youngsters. What many people don’t know is that some child stars had very disturbing childhoods; from sexual abuse to depression, to drug use and delinquency.
Some make it to adulthood, others die (sometimes committing suicide) before they reach adulthood, while some suffer from the effects of past traumas and end up short-living their adult lives. Here are some of the most troubled child stars, including the ones that never made it out alive.
Brad Renfro
Renfro was a star by the age of 12. By age 5 his parents were divorced and he had to be raised by his grandmother. He started acting at age 12, and only two years later he was charged with cocaine and marijuana possession and barely escaped jail time. Fast-forward another two years and he and a friend are trying to steal a yacht in Florida. He was placed into alcohol rehabilitation. By age 23 he was arrested for attempting to buy heroin and later died of a heroin overdose in his apartment in 2006. A classic example of the troubled child who never made it out alive.
Alex Winter
A victim of child abuse, Winter was scared to open up about the abuse he suffered because he feared for his safety, saying he thought the power dynamic in Hollywood was just not favorable at the time. This only made him feel even more powerless.
Describing that time of his life as ‘hellish,’ he also states that he had post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the consistent sexual molestation he went through as a child. Alex Winter later had to undergo multiple therapy sessions to recover from it all. He also describes starring in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure as being therapeutic to him, as it helped him escape the trauma and pain.
Corey Feldman
Corey Feldman suffered sexual abuse as a child. He was molested at the age of 13 to 14 on several occasions by a co-actor who played minor roles alongside Feldman. Feldman was arrested for heroin possession at the age of 19 and after his release he was arrested two more times for drug possession. After the second arrest he decided to get sober. Feldman also states that he was molested by his talent manager at the time. As an adult, Feldman was able to get clean. He was one of the few that survived the effects of a disastrous childhood.
Dana Plato
Dana Plato is one of those who couldn’t make it out alive. Plato reportedly suffered from drugs and alcoholism. She starred in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. She abused hard drugs from a very young age; the likes of cannabis and cocaine. She was admitted to the hospital after she suffered from an overdose of diazepam at only 14 years of age. After losing her mother to scleroderma and the show shutting down, it was all downhill from there. The young actress not only had a troubled childhood, but it followed into her adult years as she later died of a Valium and Loritab (painkiller) overdose, though, her death was investigated and deemed to be accidental rather than suicidal.
Lee Thompson Young
Lee Thompson Young suffered from Bipolar Disorder. He was a struggling kid, always trying to do his best, as his family recounted. He would seek out an audience wherever he could and perform. It was the only thing that gave him joy and he had a passion for it.
He was the star of the Disney program The Famous Jett Jackson and then as an adult was on Rizzoli & Isles. After being signed at the age of 12 it was a daily struggle for Young, trying to keep the depressive episodes in check and the mania that usually accompanies Bipolar Disorder. He ended up committing suicide at the age of 29.
Corey Haim
Corey is one of those young stars who just happened to be unlucky, mainly because of the fame and money his celebrity status brought him. Turning to substance abuse and constantly having a run-in with the law. He was raped at the age of 11, and suffered further sexual abuse at the age of 14. He was deceived into thinking it was normal for the big guys to have sex with the little guys. He was abused by his father’s assistant who also introduced him to drugs. He came into the limelight in the movie Lost Boys, in which he starred with others, including Corey Feldman. The two became close friends and later starred in The Two Coreys. Haim died of pneumonia at age 38.
Sawyer Sweeten
A kid who everybody loved and adored, he appeared with Ray Ramano as one of his sons in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Sawyer was one of those suffering in silence, whose pain was oblivious to those around him. It wasn’t until he committed suicide at the age of 19 that it was discovered Sawyer had been going through some rough times and was probably pushed to end his life due to the depression that was killing him inside. A particularly sad story as nobody in Sawyer’s life at the time knew of his travails. People paying tribute to Sawyer said he was a kind-hearted kid, which only makes it more tragic that he wasn’t able to make it out alive.
River Phoenix
River started acting at the age of 10 and had his first notable role in the Stephen King book-based movie Stand By Me. Phoenix was one of the child stars who grew up to be very successful and was the older brother to Joaquin Phoenix. He was also an activist dedicated to the protection of animals rights as well as the environment. Unfortunately, River was raped at the age of 4, and became actively engaged in drug abuse and alcoholism at a very young age. His parents were members of the Children of God cult. By the age of 14, he had gone through so much he was suffering mental trauma. River died in 1993 of an overdose outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood.
Evan Henzi
For Evan Henzi, the abuse started when he was 12. He suffered at the hands of his then child manager. When he was 11 years of age, his parents had hired Marty Weiss to help guide Evan and obtain acting opportunities. The abuse began almost immediately, as Evan would later recall. Evan stated that Weiss began asking sexual questions from the very first day and, not long after, Weiss defiled the little boy. Evan suffered abuse until he was 15-years old. Evan recalled being 12 and "not responsive," due to the damaging experiences he was going through. The singer was featured in a documentary called Open Secret.
Alison Arngrim
Despite her role as bratty Nellie Oleson in Little House On The Prairie, the reality was that Alison Arngrim was living the exact opposite of what her character portrayed. Instead of the brazen, fearless kid that caught the attention of everybody on camera, she was a fearful little girl who was abused continuously without being able to muster the courage to tell anyone, not even her parents. At the age of 12, she was already acting and had become an icon, but to her, it was merely therapeutic. She suffered sexual abuse when she was just 6 years of age. Not telling anyone, she continued to be abused by a relative for 3 years.