Part of The Goonies featuring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Ke Huy Quan, and Martha Plimpton.
Rise to Fame
He racked up five defining films before his eighteenth birthday: Gremlins, The Goonies, Stand by Me, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and The Lost Boys. With The Lost Boys, he and Corey Haim became 'The Two Coreys,' one of the most recognizable teen duos the decade produced. The 80s were very good to him. Everything after is a different story.
In the Spotlight
His 2013 appearance on The View to warn about Hollywood pedophilia got him mocked on air. He kept saying it anyway. His 2020 documentary My Truth named Charlie Sheen as the man who allegedly raped Corey Haim during the filming of Lucas in 1986. Sheen denied it. A 2025 follow-up landed on Apple TV and brought new complications: ex-bandmates made allegations about his own conduct, while he retracted a claim about Haim that his lawyers disputed. The story keeps getting messier.
Side Notes
His father sued him for $40,000 when he tried to get emancipated as a teenager. That detail lands differently knowing he'd been working since age three. His music career, built around a troupe called 'Corey's Angels,' became a cultural punchline after a Today show performance that went viral. He was close friends with Michael Jackson until Jackson died in 2009. Former Angels have since described the arrangement as exploitative and controlling.