Two Coreys, The

The Lost Boys (1987) was the film that brought together Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, and gave birth to “The Two Coreys” – a symbiotic, synergistic, and, some would say, co-enabling relationship. This was a bromance decades before we’d even coined the term.

Corey Feldman was born in 1971 and entered show business at the age of seven. After appearances in the sitcom Eight is Enough and Alice, he appeared in the 1979 TV movie Willa and the science fiction film Time After Time (1979), in relatively minor roles.

His first breakthrough came from 1979 to 1980 in the short-lived, but also popular, comedy The Bad News Bears as young baseball player Regi Tower. In 1981, after further appearances on TV, he became the voice of the young hunting dog Capper in Disney’s The Fox and the Hound (1981).

In 1984, he finally made his big screen debut as Jason’s killer nemesis Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. He also appeared in Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984), Richard Donner’s The Goonies (1985), and Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me (1986).

Corey Haim (also born in 1971) began his career as Larry in the children’s series The Edison Twins, produced from 1982 to 1986. In the meantime, he was seen as Brian in the thriller-drama Firstborn in 1984, and the following year in the teen comedy Secret Admirer.

His second leading role as Marty Coslaw in the Stephen King adaptation Silver Bullet made him famous in 1985. Although the film was only a minor box office success, it was a hit on video.

After the title role in the 1986 youth drama Lucas and the 1987 sitcom Roomies,  the two Coreys met on screen for the first time in the same year in The Lost Boys by Joel Schumacher, where the two played Sam Emerson (Haim) and Edgar Frog (Feldman) against the gothic bloodsucker gang of the fascinatingly evil David (Kiefer Sutherland), breathing new life into the dusty vampire subgenre.

It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Youthful coolness in a double pack.

The two Coreys were seen together again in 1988 in License to Drive by director Greg Beeman, playing buddies Les (Haim) and Dean (Feldman).

They were reunited again a year later in the fantasy comedy Dream a Little Dream (pictured), the story of high school student Bobby Keller (Feldman), who is madly in love with school beauty Lainie (Meredith Salenger).

As the teen stars transitioned into young adults, they appeared together as brothers in Blown Away (1992) alongside Nicole Eggert. After a brief theatrical run, the film moved to pay-TV channel HBO.

National Lampoon’s Last Resort featured the two Coreys in amusing roles again a year later, followed by roles in a handful of other direct to DVD films that never made it to mainstream consciousness, plus some cameos in the likes of Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star where they obviously take a dig at themselves.

There was, of course, the “reality” show The Two Coreys, which only lasted two seasons because recovering addict Feldman allegedly couldn’t handle Haim’s drug use and brought it to an end in 2008.

Plagued by drug addiction since allegedly being introduced to marijuana on film sets around the time his career was taking off, Haim’s momentum of stardom gradually petered out.

He died on 10 March 2010. He was just 38 years old.