Friday the 13th star Cory Feldman’s wild life – drugs, A-list dates and 3k Playboy visits

He was the brave, bald kid who quashed slasher Jason in the Friday the 13th franchise.

Corey Feldman ruled the roost in 1980s Hollywood starring in a string of cult classics. But as with many child stars, his dazzling success was matched with crushing lows. And life for the Californian actor was, at times, like a real life horror movie.

From struggles with drug addiction and surviving sexual abuse as a child, to dating A-listers and Michael Jackson’s Neverland becoming his “happy place”, the 52-year-old actor has had more than his fair share of ups and downs.

READ MORE: Lost Boys Corey Feldam was ‘fed’ drugs at 15 and knows what could have saved tragic pal

Find out how another child star overcame addiction in our exclusive interview, here.

Rewind to the early 1970s and Corey’s career kicked off at the tender age of three, where he began acting in over 100 commercials. “I was basically a slave child,” he told People. His overbearing mum, formerly a Playboy waitress, kept him on a tight leash and he alleged she would often raise a hand to keep the young actor in line, he said.

By his mid-teens Corey was granted emancipation from his parents after he claimed they spent $960,000 (£780k) of his earnings.

After a mountain of small roles in TV commercials Corey hit the jackpot, finally clinching a role in a blockbuster movie. The wiley 12-year-old starred as Tommy Jarvis, the arch nemesis to slasher Jason Vorhees 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

It was the break Corey needed to propel his career on the silver screen and quickly became one of Hollywood’s busiest young actors. He starred in a flurry of roles of 1980s nostalgia-inducing flicks, from Gremlins and The Goonies to The Lost Boys and Stand By Me. Corey had hit his glory years – or so it seemed.

While on the surface Corey’s career was flourishing, something extremely dark was happening in the shadows. In 2013, in his memoir Coreyography, the star opened up about being a survivor of sexual abuse.

Corey claimed that as a young man, an actor groomed, molested and initiated his drug habit by plying him with cocaine. “The biggest problem in Hollywood is paedophilia,” he told The Guardian in 2020.

Around this time Corey befriended the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, after the pair met on set of Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins. He said the Billie Jean singer was “like a brother”, and provided solace to the teen after being beaten and molested.

“Michael Jackson’s world, crazy as it sounds, had become my happy place. He was adamantly against drugs and alcohol, he was extremely straight-laced; I couldn’t even swear around him,” he wrote in his memoir. “Being with Michael brought me back to my innocence. When I was with Michael, it was like being 10 years old again.”

As Corey grew to become a household name, so too did a burgeoning drug habit, which culminated in a 1990 arrest for heroin possession. By 19 Corey began to slip from the spotlight and became a washed up addict, rendered almost unemployable.

The catalyst for the substance addiction, he said, was the trauma he faced from the adults that should have been looking after him.

Following a few trips to rehab, by 1995, Corey claimed to have kicked hard drugs to the curb. “It took people a long, long time to forgive me. I was just a kid making mistakes like any other kid,” he told the Phoenix New Times in 2000.

All the while, in 1989, 18-year-old Corey’s A-list love life hit centre stage. He first briefly dated Drew Barrymore, whom he accompanied to the year’s Academy Awards. The same year, he married first wife, actress Vanessa Marcil, after flying to Vegas at 3am.

Their short-lived, “unconventional” marriage came to an abrupt end in 2002. In a bid to ease his heartache, Corey found a cure: the Playboy Mansion. Following his divorce, The Goonies star revealed that he visited Hugh Hefner and his bunnies more than 3,000 times – and at one point he would turn up “every weekend.”

“I was added to the permanent list every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I would bring three or four girls,” he revealed on Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast last year. Not wanting to tread on any toes, Corey “respected the boundary” and only hooked up with the girls he brought. “These were his girlfriends. Stay away from his girls,” he added.

That same year, Corey married Susie Sprague, an aspiring actress, before having their first child in 2004. The pair parted ways in 2014.

After a series of setbacks and heartbreaks, Corey rebuilt his life. He is now a successful musician, actor and is an advocate for the #MeToo movement and against child sexual abuse – particularly of young actors.

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk