Brad Renfro dies, aged 25
Story by Jack Foley
AMERICAN actor Brad Renfro has been found dead at an LA residence at the age of 25. A cause of death is not yet known.
Renfro was a former child star who first made a name for himself at the age of 12 by being cast alongside Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon as the boy at the centre of a Mafia drama in legal thriller, The Client.
He went on to appear in childhood drama The Cure and played Huck Finn in Tom And Huck.
Further success came when he was cast as the younger version of a character played by Brad Pitt in borstal revenge drama Sleepers, and as the lead in teen drama Bully.
He also featured prominently in acclaimed indie hit Ghost World alongside Scarlett Johansson.
Renfro was seldom out of work as an actor and at the time of his death had just finished filming The Informers, an adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, with Winona Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton.
Marco Weber, the film’s producer, said: “Brad was an exceptionally talented young actor and our time spent with him was thoroughly enjoyable.”
Although the cause of death was not immediately known, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said that after receiving a call to a residence, the actor was “found unresponsive”.
“Paramedics responded and he was pronounced dead,” he added.
In spite of his acting success, Renfro had problems with alcohol and alcohol problems in the past. He was charged with cocaine and marijuana possession in 1998 and only avoided jail time with a plea bargain.
In January 2001, he was placed on probation and ordered to pay $4,000 (£2,000) for repairs to a 45-foot yacht he and a friend tried to steal in Florida and in May that same year, he was arrested for under-age drinking, violating his probation and was ordered to enter alcohol rehabilitation.
Further brushes with the law followed in 2005, although his lawyer Richard Kaplan told the Associated Press (AP) news agency following his death that Renfro was working hard on tackling the problems and had been doing well.
An autopsy to establish the cause of death is expected to be carried out soon.