Corey Haim Biography

Small in stature, but with a handsome face and a compactly muscular body, Corey Haim made a critical smash in his early juvenile roles. He later found himself often matched with Corey Feldman in lower budget films (they became known as “The Coreys”), frequently with Nicole Eggert as a love interest. Haim’s promising career was hampered by his publicized bout with drugs, but he has continued churning out films both in the US and his native Canada.

Haim has frequently played youths who stumble into situations that force him to go on the run for their lives. He began acting in commercials in Toronto when he was 11 years old, then landed a regular role on the Canadian TV series “The Edison Twins”. Haim made his feature debut as Teri Garr’s younger son who begins to “act up” in school when his mother becomes involved with a drug dealer in “Firstborn” (1984). He went on to play a wheelchair-bound boy who saves his town from a werewolf in “Silver Bullet” and Sally Field’s son in “Murphy’s Romance (both 1985). In 1986, he won over critics and audiences with his sensitive portrayal of “Lucas”, a pint-sized, mysterious high school student who loves a girl who only wants to be his friend. When the film became a sleeper hit, Haim’s career excelled. He was the younger brother of Jason Patric who tries to warn his mother and the town about vampires in Joel Schumacher’s “The Lost Boys” (1987). The latter marked his first screen collaboration with the plumper Corey Feldman (who appeared as a comic book-reading dweeb). Feldman would play the wiser friend to Haim’s lead as a teen who fails his motor vehicle test in “License to Drive” (1988). The following year, they were teamed as teens whose bodies are possessed by the spirit of two older people in “Dream a Little Dream”, roles they reprised in the unnecessary 1995 direct-to-video sequel.

Haim and Feldman were also living the fast life; both have admitted their involvement with drugs. Haim even discussed his drug use as a guest on Arsenio Hall’s talk show. Haim has continued working, however, but in decidedly low-budget, generally independent films, rather than the studio films in which he had been starring. His roles also switched from middle-class suburban kid often to kids from the wrong side of the tracks. Among the latter was “Fast Getaway” (1991), as a bank robber who first worked in tandem with his father (Leo Rossi) before striking out on his own, another role he reprised in a 1994 sequel. In the 1992 Canadian coming-of-age story, “Oh, What a Night”, Haim was a farm boy who learns about life through a dalliance with a neighbor’s wife. He was teamed with Nicole Eggert in the espionage-themed “The Double O Kid” (1993) and reteamed with Feldman in “National Lampoon’s Last Resort” (1994). Haim has remained active in a number of projects awaiting release as of 1996, including “Snowboard Academy”, “Fever Lake” and the thriller “Never to Late”.

On the small screen, Haim was in the short-lived sitcom “Roomies” (NBC, 1987), as a 14-year old genius college student rooming with a middle-aged man (Burt Young). In the well-received TV-movie “A Time to Live” (NBC, 1985), he was Liza Minnelli’s son struggling with muscular dystrophy. He was reteamed with Nicole Eggert and Corey Feldman in the HBO film “Blown Away” (1993) and tried a comic role appearing in drag in “Just One of the Girls” (Fox, 1993).