Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius reflects on the tragic life and premature death of actor Brad Renfro.

The latest in a regrettably long line of troubled former child stars whose too much, too soon lifestyles ruined them for adulthood, Brad Renfro was found dead at his Los Angeles home on the morning of Tuesday, January 15. Though the cause of death remains undisclosed for now, the 25-year old actor's various drug dependencies have been well documented, leaving little doubt as to how he met his end.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee on July 25, 1982, Bradley Barron Renfro was discovered a decade later by director Joel Schumacher, who immediately cast the lad in his first major movie. Appearing opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in John Grisham courtroom thriller The Client (1994), Renfro played a young boy sought by the Mafia, his confident, heartfelt performance making an immediate impression on critics and audiences alike.

Consolidating his success with follow up roles in AIDS drama The Cure (1995) and family comedy Tom and Huck (1995), Renfro won The Hollywood Reporter's Young Star Award in 1995 and was nominated as one of People Magazine's Top 30 Under 30. Later appearing opposite Kevin Bacon in Telling Lies in America in 1997, and with Ian McKellen in Nazi-themed thriller Apt Pupil in 1998, despite his success, or perhaps because of it, Renfro reportedly found adapting to the Hollywood lifestyle difficult. Despite a string of successful roles in films like Bully (2001), Ghost World (2001) and The Jacket (2005), for the past decade Brad was better known for his real-life lawless behaviour than for anything he did on the screen.

Ironically, Renfro was originally inspired to become an actor after starring in a school production sponsored by drug organization DARE, aimed at teaching kids about the dangers of drugs. Just a few years down the line in 1998, when he was still only 16, Brad's increasing reliance on drugs first caught the eye of the law. Arrested in Tennessee after police pulled him over and allegedly found cocaine and marijuana in his pants and socks, Renfro appeared to be living up to the cliché of the troubled former child star.

Two years later in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Renfro was arrested on a grand theft charge for allegedly trying to steal a 45-foot yacht. He and a companion failed to untie the boat from the dock, yet did however manage to do lots of expensive damage. Later in 2001, while on probation for the crime, Renfro was again arrested for underage drinking and briefly incarcerated.

The following month, in a vain attempt to put a brave face on things and rise above his tabloid escapades, Brad cheerfully told reporters that he was getting over his legal troubles by playing lots of golf. Insisting he'd turned over a new leaf, he said, "It's funny - most kids my age are just getting into the party scene and I'm over that shit. I don't go out and get arrested anymore. The most extravagant thing I do these days is play golf. I'm like an old man."

"I do have a bad reputation," he continued, "but I think most of the time when folks meet me they don't have too many bad things to say about me." As for the yacht incident, Renfro smiled and said, "Aw, come on! Put two and two together. It was a joke, a joke that went sour. I'm not that ignorant." Unfortunately by January 2002, Brad's fresh new start was exposed as a sham. Stopped for a traffic violation near his Knoxville home, Renfro was again arrested and charged with public intoxication and driving without a license.

Most recently, though he had been reportedly working hard to stay clean and sober, Renfro pleaded guilty to heroin possession in 2006, after being caught in a police sting. Between rehab, his court appearances, the brief spells in prison and all that frenzied drug-taking, Renfro somehow managed to squeeze a little work in, recently wrapping filming on Bret Easton Ellis's The Informers, with Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger.

Sadly we'll never know what Brad might have achieved had he managed to stay on the straight and narrow. Like River Phoenix before him, his legacy is a cautionary tale of crashing and burning in Hollywood.

"Everybody thinks I'm, like, a bad boy," reflected Renfro. "And I've had my day, but mostly I just sit at home and play the blues."

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