Corey Ian Haim (born December 23, 1971) is a Canadian actor, best known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. Haim reached peak popularity in the late 1980s, appearing in The Lost Boys, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream. His friendship and on-screen collaboration with actor Corey Feldman was widely publicized during the late 1980s and the pair were dubbed "the two Coreys".
Haim first broke into mainstream acting playing the role of Larry in the Canadian family oriented comedy television series, The Edison Twins, which ran from 1982 through until 1986. Haim made his first cinematic appearance in the 1984 feature film, Firstborn, which also starred now well-known actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr.
In 1985, Haim appeared in minor roles in Secret Admirer and Murphy's Romance and starred in the leading role in a feature film version of Stephen King's novella, Silver Bullet, playing a paralytic boy alongside Gary Busey. Haim started to make a name for himself in the industry, notably by earning his first Young Artist Award as an Exceptional Young Actor Starring in a Television Special or Movie of the Week for the television movie A Time to Live.
Haim's major break was in 1986, billed as the main star alongside Kerri Green, Charlie Sheen, and Winona Ryder in the popular movie Lucas. Haim would receive a nomination for an Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor Starring in a Feature Film - Comedy or Drama at the Young Artist Awards for his role as the title character. Film critic Roger Ebert raved about Haim's performance, commenting that he "creates one of the most three-dimensional, complicated, interesting characters of any age in any recent movie. If he can continue to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor. He is that good." Following the success of Lucas, Haim starred in the 1987 television series, Roomies.
He continued making direct-to-video films, including Blown Away (also starring Eggert and Feldman), The Double 0 Kid and Oh, What a Night. His Blown Away co-star and former girlfriend, Nicole Eggert, would later comment that there were substantial delays in filming due to Haim's problems. .
In 1993, Haim was charged for pulling out a fake handgun during a dispute with his business manager, although the charges were later reduced from felony to misdemeanor. Later that year he starred in a full motion video game called Double Switch, which was released for the Sega CD and later for the Sega Saturn, as well as for the home computer. Over the next two years, Haim would release low budget sequels to two of his older films. In 1994, Fast Getaway II was released along with National Lampoon's Last Resort. The following year, Life 101 and another sequel, Dream a Little Dream 2 with Corey Feldman were released. None of these achieved any major success.
In 1996 Haim celebrated his engagement to Holly Fields, which did not last, as well as starring in four more direct-to-video films: Snowboard Academy, Busted with Corey Feldman (their last film collaboration), Demolition High, and Fever Lake, but further problems arose when he was sued by Lloyds of London for $375,000 after pulling out of the film Paradise Bar because of drug problems, which he had failed to mention on the insurance form. After releasing both Never Too Late and the sequel to Demolition High, Demolition University (which he also produced), he filed for bankruptcy in 1997.
In 1999, Haim was again involved in controversy, as a string of allegations arose with then girlfriend Cindy Guyer, a former Playboy model. Haim's film roles were scarce since 1997, and apart from playing a minor role in a television version of Merlin, Haim would not work as an actor again until 2000.
1995 Dream a Little Dream 2 Dinger Holfield
1991 Fast Getaway Nelson direct-to-video release
1991 Prayer of the Rollerboys Griffin
1990 The Dream Machine Barry Davis direct-to-video release
1989 Dream a Little Dream Dinger
1988 Watchers Travis Cornell
1988 License to Drive Les Anderson
1987 The Lost Boys Sam Emerson
1986 Lucas Lucas
1985 Silver Bullet Marty Coslaw
1984 Firstborn Brian Livingston