Brad Renfro Dead at 25

[KingVoyeur]

It's always sad when someone that young dies. The only thing I saw him in was Apt Pupil, but he wasn't bad in it.

Brad Renfro Dead At 25 (http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/15/renfro.obit.ap/index.html)

[Trazalca]

I read this on IMDB.com, and thought it quite touching coming from Ian McKellen:

Acting legend Sir Ian McKellen has paid tribute to Brad Renfro, his co-star in 1998 film Apt Pupil, who died on Tuesday at just 25. The young star was just 15 when he was cast alongside the British Oscar nominee in the movie, about a teenager who befriends a hiding Nazi war criminal. After learning of Renfro's death from a suspected drug overdose, McKellen wrote on his blog, "I first caught sight of Brad Renfro when he was kicking a football around with Bryan Singer on the half-built set of Apt Pupil in Hollywood. He was a kid having fun and that's how I shall always remember him. But he was more than that. He was a proper actor and when we worked together he was determined to be accepted as such. On set, he was blusteringly confident although it was obvious he would have benefited from training as an actor. Yet, as Todd, the disturbed teenager in Apt Pupil, he tapped into an inner demonic world and carried the film on his young shoulders. He longed to belong in the alien world which perhaps in the end overwhelmed him. He was only 25 and it is dreadful we shan't see all that he might have achieved."

[fastcar]

In the case of "what might have been" in regards to celebrity deaths, I wonder what some of Hollywood's brightest stars would have achieved if they hadn't been sucked into their vices or been killed, accidentally.

John Belushi - If he hadn't died and gotten clean, would he have gone on to be Tom Hanks or Chevy Chase?

River Phoenix - Same thing, gone on to be like his brother/Johnny Depp or ended up Christian Slater

Chris Farley - Cleaned up, lost weight, become either Will Ferrell/Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider/David Spade?

Brandon Lee - Would he have been Chow Yun Fat or Stephen Segal?

[sickness]

Yesterday, Howard Stern made a good point about just such a thing. He threw around names like MLK and Jimi Hendrix, though. Would MLK now be doing Viagra commercials? Would Jimi just be some acid-fried has-been like Syd Barrett became? Sometimes, the person's death crystalizes them and makes their time here more special than it really is at the time it happens. Honestly, if King hadn't been martyred, would there have been such a sea change in views on race in this country? Maybe. Maybe not. We'll never know.

[WhiteKnight]

I should probably just keep this to myself, but it bothers me. Renfro has been dead for around a week as I type this, but there are less than 10 replies to the topic.

Ledger has been dead in the neighborhood of two days and there are 35 or more replies to that thread.

I don't know why, but it is troubling to me one dead actor is receiving more attention than the other simply because he was more visible to the public. I guess that people die everyday without getting any mass media attention at all. Still, is one of these stories somehow more sad than the other?

[fastcar]

I think a part of it is that Heath's status in Hollywood was better than Renfro's. Renfro has had a history with drugs and the law whereas Heath's demise is not only a mystery but a shock considering his life. Had this happened to Renfro 10 years ago, it would have been more talked about...yet the media machine wasn't as whorish as it is now.

[Jakester]

Right, given Renfro's past, it's not terribly surprising. It's like -- if Robert Downey Jr. was found dead with drugs strewn about near him, would anyone really be surprised? It'd be sad, to be sure, especially since he's been doing such great work these last several years; but would it be a complete shock? Given his past, not really.

Renfro's death is certainly sad, but it's not nearly as surprising or shocking as Ledger's, which is why, I think people are more able to acknowledge it and move on than they are with Ledger's.

[colmatrix]

Even if RDJr was found dead with drugs, knowing his past with drugs and everything, his topic would far outnumber Brad Renfro. He's got a much bigger resume. The kid (much as I liked him) had little to no career next to Heath's and Heath has was more fans because of his body of work.

[mckracken]

Heath was just pushing The Joker... I mean literally just days before his death Christopher Nolan was pushing TDK and had just released the first images of The Joker, one of next summer's biggest blockbusters. NOBODY was expecting Heath to be found dead....nobody.

Brad Renfro wasnt making front page news when he died, I think he wasnt finishing up with any movies... he had faded from the public eye. He's best known for The Client, which was a great first movie for him... but its over ten years old. His last credit was a guest stint on Law and Order from 2006... his latest is called "The Informers" which is in post production currently, Brad Renfro played "Jack"...unlike Terry Gilliam's Parnassus.

[TrekSucksHard]

I should probably just keep this to myself, but it bothers me. Renfro has been dead for around a week as I type this, but there are less than 10 replies to the topic.

Ledger has been dead in the neighborhood of two days and there are 35 or more replies to that thread.

I don't know why, but it is troubling to me one dead actor is receiving more attention than the other simply because he was more visible to the public. I guess that people die everyday without getting any mass media attention at all. Still, is one of these stories somehow more sad than the other?

Heath was more popular- simple as that. I don't recall Brad Renfro ever making a good movie which was popular with the masses.