Brad Renfro snubbed at the Oscars

Well, this will be short.  I just want to point out that it’s a shame that Brad Renfro was left out in the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars this year.

Every year, the In Memoriam is one of the segments that I wait for (no, I’m not morbid) just because I want to remember the artists who have contributed to the entertainment industry (being the show biz junkie that I am).

Of course, this year I really waited for that segment because I wanted to see if they will include Heath Ledger.  (see my previous article about Heath here).

Well, when Hilary Swank introduced the segment and said that some of those who we will remember left too early, I knew that Heath would be there along with Brad Renfro since he died exactly 1 week before Heath.  Although, he died by OD-ing with heroin  (something I don’t approve of), I believed in him as an actor.

His first movie, The Client, was the 2nd John Grisham book I’ve read.  It’s film adaptation is  my most watched John Grisham film.  Actually, I loved it because they stayed true to the book unlike The Firm so I don’t get tired watching it.  It also helps that Brad was such a cute kid back then.  I think every one had a crush on him and he was a regular cover of BOP (hee!).  He was brilliant as Mark Sway and he was able to match the acting of Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones (both Oscar regulars) in spite of it being his first movie.

He made me cry in The Cure and made me stay with Apt Pupil (although I was bored).  Gosh, I even saw  Tom and Huck for him.   Sadly, his career went on a downward spiral after that.  I think it was last year when I saw his recent picture in PerezHilton and saw that he did not age gracefully.  He was only 24 then but he had a receding hairline already and he just looked plain awful.  I searched us.imdB that time and learned that he had some troubles with the law and was battling heroin addiction. Well as they say, once you go to heroin, there’s no turning back.

Even with the tragic way he died, I thought he would be there since I remember River Phoenix (another favorite of mine) was mentioned even if he died by inducing a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin in front of Johnny Depp’s Viper Club.

I tried researching why  he was not mentioned.  I am not sure about who gets remembered or not but still it’s a shame.  The logical reason is probably because he was not an Academy member.  Cynics would say it’s because of how he died but then again, maybe the In Memoriam editor just plainly forgot about him.   Now, that is SAD.

P.S.

It seems that I don’t know how to write short.