1.River Phoenix
A dedicated animal-rights activist and environmentalist, River was a strict vegetarian and a member of PeTA. River was a talented musician as well as an actor, and he played guitar, sang, and wrote songs for his band, Aleka's Attic, which also included his sister Rain Phoenix, while living in Gainsville, Florida. Although the band never released its own album, their song "Across the Way" can be found on PeTA's "Tame Yourself" album, used to fight animal abuse. River was in the middle of filming Dark Blood, playing the character Boy when he died.
Cause of Death: Drug Overdose
2. Corey Haim
Canadian-born Haim broke into the Film industry in 1984 as a young child caught up in a family war in the hit movie Firstborn. The following year he starred in the TV movie A Time to Live, for which he received an award, and Silver Bullet. Lucas, in which he starred alongside Charlie Sheen showed his ability, but was not a big hit. In 1987 he had a breakthrough when he played one of the major roles in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys (1987), but his output during the nineties onwards was disappointing.
Cause of Death: Drug Overdose
3. Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain was born on February 20 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt and his family lived in Hoquiam for the first few months of his life then later moved back to Aberdeen, where he had a happy childhood until his parents divorced. The divorce left Kurt's outlook on the world forever scarred. He became withdrawn and anti-social. He was constantly placed with one relative to the next, living with friends, and at times even homeless. Kurt was not the most popular person in high school as he was in public school, getting picked on by "jocks" and being labeled as "queer". In 1985 Kurt left Aberdeen for Olympia where he formed the band Nirvana in 1986. In 1989 Nirvana recorded their debut album Bleach under the independent label Sub-Pop records. Nirvana became very popular in Britain and by 1991 they signed a contract with Geffen.
Cause of Death: Suicide
4. Brad Renfro
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee on July 25, 1982, he was discovered at age 10 by director Joel Schumacher and was cast in the motion picture, The Client (1994) which starred Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Although this would be his zenith, he went on to appear in other films such as The Cure, Tom and Huck, Sleepers, and _Apt Pupil_ (1998). Renfro won "The Hollywood Reporter's Young Star Award" in 1995 and was nominated as one of People Magazine's "Top 30 Under 30", though addiction problems in his teens and early twenties led to several police arrests and hampered his career.
Cause of Death: Drug Overdose
5. Jonathan Brandis
Born in Danbury, Connecticut, USA, to Greg and Mary, Jonathan Brandis began his career at age 5, acting in television commercials. He appeared in small parts in several films and TV shows before his first starring role in the 1990 film The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). He starred in popular films such as Ladybugs (1992) and starred as Lucas Wolenczak in Steven Spielberg's television series "SeaQuest 2032" (1993). He doubled up his high school courses so he could finish a year early to his role on SeaQuest. He died in November 2003.
Cause of Death: Hanging
