Sad news out of Hollywood as actor Brad Renfro showed incredible promise when he was an unknown in 1993 and cast to play the title role in "The Client." The film's success brought the teen instant stardom, but he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse the rest of his life. On Tuesday, Renfro was found dead in his LA home. He was 25.
In "The Client," based on a John Grisham best-seller, he played a boy who witnesses a suicide and gets caught up in a mob investigation. Susan Sarandon was nominated for an Oscar for her role as the lawyer the boy hires to help protect him.
Renfro followed up with major parts in the 1995 AIDS drama "The Cure," the 1997 "Sleepers," and "Telling Lies in America," also 1997. More recent credits included "Ghost World," 2001; "Deuces Wild," 2002; and "The Jacket," 2005.
Unfortunately, Renfro was arrested numerous times between film shoots. The actor served 10 days in jail in 2006 after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and guilty to attempted possession of heroin. The latter charge stemmed from his arrest in Los Angeles' Skid Row area, when he attempted to buy the drug from an undercover officer.
Other run-ins with the law included a 1998 charge of cocaine and marijuana possession, for which he avoided jail time in a plea deal. He was also placed on probation and ordered to pay $4,000 for repairs to a 45-foot yacht he and a friend tried to steal in Florida in 2000.
The following year, he was charged with underage drinking and violating the terms of his probation, and was ordered into alcohol rehabilitation.
Renfro recently completed a role in "The Informers," a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel that stars Winona Ryder, Brandon Routh and Billy Bob Thornton.
