How can he be better off dead? What a callous thing to say. A young man dying at 25 is always a tragedy.

Who.....................??

Early death hurts the surviving loved ones so much. My brother died of a drug overdose (suicide) nearly 15 years ago. It was hard on all of us.

That said...

The planet's population has more than doubled in my lifetime. On the whole, the species appears to be flourishing.

being a heroin junkie in the USA is flirting with death.....all heroin addicts KNOW this.

This is just another example of the pressures of child stardom. No one cares about the kids emotionally just as long as they showing up to the set to work. Look at River Phoenix's short life. Renfro's life is just the same. It's sad. I feel for this young man who has a bright future. I just read that Ike Turner died of a cocaine overdose. No sympathy there (despite his genius as a musician) because what is a 76-year-old man doing with cocaine?

As the mother of a heroin and cocaine addict (in recovery and sober now) who struggled with addiction during his teens, I'm always sorry to hear of the death of a young person by overdose. It could happen to any one of our kids; they don't have to be living in Hollywood or in the entertainment industry. My son got into his addiction while attending a good school in a city that is generally touted as a great place to raise children and be healthy. Heroin and cocaine are everywhere and the passing of one more young person from its effects should spur us all to speak out about the need for better controls to keep it out of schools and for better access to treatment no matter income level. See my blog on adolescent addiction issues and what parents need to know at motherwarriors.blogspot.com

What most people do not understand is:
Even with all the rehab, treatment and information in the world .....only 1 (one) in 30 will be able to sustain sobriety.
Being weak-willed has nothing to do with it.
The invironment he lived in was just too to toxic.

Such a shame. Hollywood is too rough on young actors.

Too sad.

He was in a movie "The Cure"....
A wonderful performance by a very talented
young man...I will miss him..

You thought Mulholland Drive was a surrealist film about Hollywood?

Hollywood is the vampire, babe.

I feel bad about his death... I spent a very uncomfortable night at a dinner party where he was also a guest. He as completely and utterly messed up. No one failed him, many people tried to help... he failed himself.

What difference does it make how he died, or why he died, or whether he could act? The only really important thing is that he was beautiful.

Terrible !
I remember the "Client" movie and him really well, he was very good in it and showed lots of promise.
Is this the way it ends ? Who failed him ? Hollywood ?
So sorry for the family !

I recall a very solid performance in "Bully." He showed great promise. Ultimately, the kid died of parental neglect.

Meanwhile, Tommy Xenu Cruise is shilling for Scientology's Narconon. Pay $15,000 to get overdoses of vitamins and saunas.

His drug problems started when he was an early teen. (I had friends working with and around him.) He was extremely talented but his parents were for the most part absentee. Nobody was there to stop him, and nobody wanted to interupt the lifestyle his career was affording them.

To those of you posting remarks about how cliched it is for an actor to die from a drug overdose, and that he was shabby as a result of it...

I knew people who worked with and around him when he was in his early teens. These problems started for him when he was very young and he was never able to move past them. He was a talented actor, hand picked by Joel Shoefucker (a man who destroys everything he touches apparently), for the roll in The Client which made him recognizable as a child actor. He had minimal parent supervision, and nobody ever intervened on his behalf when he was too young to do it on his own.

That child became the man that was found dead yesterday. He was a victim of negligence and never managed to get past that in his few years as an adult. Sadly we'll never get to see whether he could've asserted control of his own life as he matured and got older.

That's hard core method acting

Very sad. He was so talented. I hope he is at peace. And now Afghanistan is the largest narco state in the world. So much for the war in terror and the war on drugs.

So, so sad.

Sad news. I remember he was a pretty solid young actor. Very sad.

Damn this writers strike!

face it folks, drugs kill you, there have been many examples over the years. if you take drugs, you are flirting with death, as well as being a fucking loser.

It could have been Limbaugh.

Noticed him first in the movie: TELLING LIES IN AMERICA. Such a good movie...and I checked on the cast afterwards, and felt for him when I realized he had a drug problem. Last time I checked, believe they caught him and a friend trying to steal a boat/yacht...and realized he was close to bottom as they say. This Saturday he came up in conversation when discussing Spears...and I brought up this movie and how good it was and how I had little hope for him from what I knew. Hope..people will find a way to intervene in celebrities lives to save their lives. Know it's a "freedom" thing, but a way needs to be found. In the service I knew a couple guys who completely embraced drugs and thought they were good, but they're not. Only way I can see is intervention when it becomes obvious someone is being destroyed. They will not be able to save themselves. Begs the question...how about non-celebrities...well their lives are as important...it's just that we as a public, better, understand what a problem it is, because of celebrities' prominence and exposure before us...and that is good and hopeful to all those suffering from drugs, not to mention their loved-ones.