“He was huge at one point, but by the time of his death, he had really fallen off the face of the Earth, as far as Hollywood was concerned. He was just one of many child actors who was never prepared to deal with fame or money, and it also seems likely (given the time period and various projects he was involved with) that he probably either experienced abuse or was at least exposed to very inappropriate or toxic relationships with the adults around him.
I thought I was in love with that boy, but when I watch his performances today, I still think that he could have been huge. He was an intensely good actor, and it was all natural.”
What happened: Renfro died on January 15, 2008 of an overdose of heroin and morphine. According to the Hollywood Reporter, paramedics had been called to his home at 9 a.m., and he was pronounced dead by the coroner at noon.
Renfro had a history of struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. In a highly-publicized 2005 incident, Renfro was arrested in Los Angeles’s Skid Row for allegedly trying to buy heroin. And then in 2006, “he spent 10 days in jail after pleading no-contest to driving while intoxicated and pleading guilty to attempted possession of heroin,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Renfro was finally laid to rest in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee a week later. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported that “more than 600 people attended the funeral and closed-casket viewing at the Stevens Mortuary in North Knoxville, where a simple arrangement of red, white, and yellow flowers sat next to the casket along with a photograph of the star in his younger, happier days.”