A Sad Goodbye to an 80's Teen Idol

"An Innocent Girl. A harmless drive. What Could POSSIBLY Go Wrong?" - Les Anderson

License to Drive. Lost Boys. Lucas. Today, another little piece of the 1980's is gone as it was announced that teen crush, Corey Haim, died of an accidental drug overdose. Corey Haim was a Teen, Super Teen, Tiger Beat, Bop Magazine staple and I had his pictures all over my room and scrapbooks. Could he have been cuter?! I mean, he was one of the two Corey's, along with his film buddy cutie-patootie Corey Feldman, that I loved. If you were a cute boy in the 80's and your name was Corey, I pretty much had a crush on you (ie Giovanni Ribisi's character Corey on "My Two Dads"). It first started when I saw him in "Lucas", where he played the title role, a loveable dork who was trying to win the love of a new classmate, played by Kerri Green (Andi in the "The Goonies"). However, she was smitten with a very hot (and always shirtless) Charlie Sheen. This movie had a great group of 80's actors in it (Haim, Green, Sheen, a young nerdy Winona Ryder, Jeremy Piven, and Courtney Thorne-Smith), and was a bit a bit of an 80's sleeper. Definitely add it to your netflix queue if you haven't seen it. Besides its young stars and sweet story, it had THE perfect 80's "clap" scene ending. You know, where one person starts the clap, it catches on, until the whole school is cheering for the underdog. This is the film that could have launched Haim into a legitimate actor. Then came the super cool vampire movie, "The Lost Boys". Twilight? Please. Try "The Lost Boys", maybe one of the coolest movies of the 1980's with the Corey's, Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jamie Gertz and a kick-ass soundtrack with a hell of a lot of music by The Doors. Everyone owned the movie AND the soundtrack. Then "License to Drive" came along where he teamed up with Feldman again (they had 7 films total together) to play a teen who despite flunking his driving test goes out for a night out on the town with his friends in order to win over the hottest girl in school, Mercedes Lane (played by a young 18-year old Heather Graham). The Corey's had it all - fame, money, women, and a nightlife of drugs and alcohol. Too much, too young.

After this trio of hits, the Corey's teamed up with Meredith Salinger in the mediocre flick, "Dream A Little Dream of Me" (Now.. OF COURSE, I saw it on the theater). This film was not good, but the soundtrack rocked (Hello? "Rock On" by Michael Damian? Good tune). And after this, it was pretty much downhill for Corey. He sort of lost his cute appeal and his drug problems were at its peak. He was left with roles in semi-soft porn flicks like the 1992 film "Blown Away", with surprise, surprise Corey Feldman and "Baywatch" and "Charles in Charge" hottie, Nicole Eggert. And for Corey Haim, that was it... in and out of rehab for years for drug abue - addicted to uppers, downers, crack and cocaine. Sadly, he became a bit of a joke. Even his long-time friend Corey Feldman (who obviously faced these problems himself) couldn't help him, and refused to work on their A&E reality show "The Two Corey's" until he faced his drug addictions. They went from these adorable teen idols to just straight-up creepy guys that couldn't be helped. If only Dr. Drew could've helped...

Sadly, this didn't come as a total surprise to many. It wasn't a headline that came as a shock. You always hoped Corey could face his demons and turn his life around, but somehow knew he would meet his demise too early. It's a tragic story of how a young kid could get caught up in a world of fame. I will remember him in his early days as that cute boy who made me smile, who made me want to go to the movies with my girlfriends, who made me run to the nearest store for the latest issue of 16 Magazine. I'm sure most young girls in the 80's can relate. He's a boy that just got caught up in it all and couldn't get better. RIP Corey Haim. Hope you are in a better place. Thanks for making the 80's that much better.