 Brad Renfro: Passes away at 25
Actor Brad Renfro, whose career began promisingly with a childhood role in "The Client" but rapidly faded as he struggled with drugs and alcohol, was found dead Tuesday at his Los Angeles apartment. He was 25.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at 9 a.m., said Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The cause of death was not immediately determined, Harvey said, but an autopsy could be conducted as early as Wednesday.
Renfro had reportedly been drinking with friends the evening before his death, Harvey said. Renfro was heard snoring overnight, but found not breathing later Tuesday morning, and the friends called 911.
Brad Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, said he did not know if the death was connected to any problems with addiction. "He was working hard on his sobriety," Kaplan said. "He was doing well. He was a nice person."
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.
Other run-ins with the law included a 1998 charge of cocaine and marijuana possession, for which Brad Renfro avoided jail time in a plea deal. He was also placed on probation in January 2001 and ordered to pay $4,000 for repairs to a 45-foot yacht he and a friend tried to steal in Florida in August 2000.
He was arrested again in May 2001 and charged with underage drinking, violating the terms of his probation, and was ordered into alcohol rehabilitation the following March.
Most recently, in June 2007 Renfro was found to have violated his probation by not enrolling in a long-term drug treatment program. A judge warned him that if he violated probation two more times, he could be sentence to a live-in rehab program or to jail time.
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., Brad Renfro's film career began when he was 12, acting opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in "The Client." Brad Renfro's other credits included "Sleepers," "Deuces Wild," "Apt Pupil" and "The Jacket." |
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