Top 20 Hilarious Child Star Screw Ups

Fame has a funny way of lifting you up and then dropping you on your head. Just ask these former child stars who lived the high life for several years before succumbing to the darker side of life. Whether it be drugs, alcohol, porn, or all of the above, here are some of the more prominent child star mess ups in history.

1. Jodie Sweetin: As a child actress, Jodie Sweetin got her start in hot dog commercials, but she is best known for playing the comedic role of Stephanie Tanner on the popular sitcom Full House in the early 1990s. As the middle child, Sweetin’s character was always finding dramatic ways to get attention. Turns out this insecurity extended to Sweetin’s real life, as well. After completing high school and marrying a L.A. police officer at the age of 20, Sweetin found herself unemployed and bored. To combat her boredom, Sweetin turned to crystal meth and soon wound up addicted and using the drug daily. When the word got out about Sweetin’s troubles, her former cast mates were there in a jiff. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Bob Saget, and John Stamos, among others, banded together to stage an intervention, and Sweetin checked herself into Promises treatment center in Malibu. After six weeks of treatment, Sweetin checked out. She’s been clean since 2006. Now on her second marriage, Sweetin recently gave birth to her first child.


2. Brad Renfro: Brad Renfro grew up as a regular kid in Knoxville, Tennessee, raised by his grandmother, a church secretary. A casting director hired onto the movie The Client, a film adaptation of the John Grisham novel, discovered him while scouting in the south. Though new to acting, Renfro nailed the part opposite Susan Sarandon and Hollywood executives came calling. Renfro nabbed other high-profile roles alongside Brad Pitt, Ian McKellan and Winona Ryder. But his dysfunctional childhood haunted Renfro throughout his life, and his adolescence and young adulthood was riddled with drug and alcohol abuse. In 2005 and 2006, Renfro was arrested for possession of heroin and in 2007 he was sent to a court-ordered rehab center for violating probation. Despite the treatment, Renfro continued to use and in January 2008 he was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment, the result of a drug overdose.


3. Corey Haim: Corey Haim was a big deal in the 1980s, and was considered one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors. He starred in several blockbuster films, like Lucas and The Lost Boys. While riding the highs of fame, Haim drifted toward drugs, a habit that he continued well after his popularity had died down. Haim admitted that he started drinking and smoking pot on the set of The Lost Boys, and said that soon after he was doing cocaine and then moved to crack. To help take the edge off of the strong uppers, Haim took Valium at night and was soon addicted to that pill. He’s quoted as having said, “One led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day - the doctors could not believe I was taking that much. And that was just the valium - I'm not talking about the other pills I went through.” Haim tried rehab several times to no avail, but suffering a stroke finally prompted him to give up drugs. Now, Haim says he’s drug free. In 2007, he and fellow washed-up child star Corey Feldman starred in a fictional-reality TV show together, called The Two Coreys.


4. Danny Bonaduce: As a child, Danny Bonaduce was a big deal. He shot to fame on the legendary show The Partridge Family, on which he portrayed the smart-aleck son in a musical family. He started that role at the age of 10, but by his late teens the show had ended and Bonaduce began a wandering lifestyle, starring in bit roles and delving heavily into drugs and alcohol. Bonaduce struggled with addiction for many years. He was arrested for suspicion of cocaine possession in both 1985 and 1990 and has been to rehab in 2001 and 2005. He wrote an autobiography about his crazy ways and in 2005 signed on to do a VH1 reality show called Breaking Bonaduce, which chronicled his attempts to stay sober. He relapsed during the show, and it’s since been canceled.


5. Mackenzie Phillips: Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips from The Mamas and the Papas. According to reports, Phillips stared doing LSD and smoking pot when she was only 12. Her parents apparently turned a blind eye to the drug use and even encouraged it, allegedly teaching her to shoot up. Phillips had a role in the landmark movie American Graffiti before landing the role that made her a household name as Julie Cooper on One Day at a Time. During that period, Mackenzie get deep into her drug and alcohol addiction and often showed up to work drunk and stoned. In 1980, she was fired from the show for her addiction issues. Though hired back the next year, she was fired again in 1983, again because of her substance abuse. Phillips went to rehab seven times throughout the next ten years before finally sobering up in 1992. Today, she still works as an actress and spreads her message about the importance of sobriety.


6. Lindsay Lohan: Though she started out as a child model, Lindsay Lohan got her big Hollywood break at the age of 11, nabbing the lead role in the remake of The Parent Trap. From there she continued to get wholesome roles in movies like Freaky Friday and Herbie: Fully Loaded. But her private life was not so chaste. Lohan led a highly publicized life of partying for years before the craziness caught up to her. In a short period of time she was almost fired from the set of Georgia Rule for not showing up due to hangovers, caught by the paparazzi passed out mouth-agape in the front seat of a friend’s car, and arrested for a DUI. Lohan checked into rehab in 2007, but went back after a relapse. According to her father, she was treated for an addiction to alcohol and oxycontin. She’s also been known to use cocaine. Now Lohan is still filming movies and trying to work her way back into Hollywood’s top circles after her addictions had almost blacklisted her any possible hires. She is reportedly sober.


7. Leif Garrett: Leif Garrett started working in show business at the ripe age of 5, starring in multiple TV shows, including The Odd Couple, throughout the 1970s. In 1976, Garrett took a stab at music, releasing a hugely popular self-titled album, from which many songs made the Top 100 singles lists. He was a popular teen heartthrob in the 1970s and 1980s, but today his appearance is a telltale sign of years of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Garrett’s struggles with addiction first came to surface in 1979 when he crashed his car while drunk on alcohol and Quaaludes. The accident paralyzed his best friend Roland Winkler, who was a passenger. The accident also marked the descent of Garrett’s career and his descent into substance use. Garrett became a notorious heroin and cocaine user and has been arrested for possession of the two substances at least five times, also racking up legal problems from other issues. Garrett tried getting clean a number of times, including in 1999 when he invited the media to film one of his hospital detox sessions. It didn’t work and in 2005 Garrett was arrested for possession of cocaine; in 2006, he was arrested again for possession of heroin. He was ordered to treatment, which he did not complete. Despite making token appearances on TV reality shows, Garrett has no real acting career at the moment and it is unclear if he is still using drugs.


8. Dana Plato: Starring as Kimberly Drummond on the hit sitcom Different Strokes from 1978 to 1984, Dana Plato was the picture of the all-American teenager. But after the show, and subsequently her career, ended, Plato turned to drugs and a life of crime. In 1991, Plato went on a drug fueled trip to a Las Vegas video store, where she robbed the clerk. She was arrested and said the incident led her to seek help for her addictions to drugs and alcohol. However, in 1992 she was again arrested for forging a prescription for Valium. While she maintained in public that she had been clean and sober since then, in 1999 Plato was found dead at her fiance’s parents’ house in Oklahoma. The cause of death was an overdose of prescription medications. Plato was 34 and left behind a 14 year old son.


9. Macaulay Culkin: Ranking No. 2 in VH1’s list of “100 Greatest Kid Stars” is Macaulay Culkin, best known for his roles in Home Alone and Richie Rich. But Culkin is also known for having grown up in a dysfunctional family. His parents had a widely publicized custody battle in 1995, and Culkin is estranged from his father who he accuses of mismanaging his income. In 2004, Culkin was arrested in Oklahoma City for possession of marijuana and prescription pills, for which he had no prescription. He pled guilty to the charges, and while he has admitted to trying lots of drugs and smoking pot occasionally, he says that he doesn’t have a problem. Culkin continues to act today in movies. Most recently, he starred in the movie Sex and Breakfast along with Eliza Dushku and Kuno Becker.


10. Todd Bridges: Another alum of the sitcom Different Strokes, Bridges, like his costar Dana Plato, had his fair share of problems after leaving the show. His legal troubles began while he was still acting in 1983 when he was arrested for carrying a concealed firearm. In 1987, he was arrested for threatening a local car dealership with a bomb and then in 1989 he was arrested for armed robbery after an incident where he pulled a gun on his mechanic in an attempt to take his car from the shop without paying the bill. In 1989, though, Bridges was arrested on his most serious charge of attempted murder. He shot an alleged crack dealer eight times following a dispute in an L.A. crackhouse. He was acquitted from those charges, but was soon racking up more legal woes, including a 1993 arrest for drug and weapon possessions and a 1997 arrest for assault and battery. After this last transgression, Bridges turned to Christ and has since been active with the Trinity Broadcast Network. Since 2000, Bridges has made a host of appearances on celebrity reality shows, including The Surreal Life, Celebrity Boxing, Skating with Celebrities, and Fear Factor.


11. Edward Furlong: Fans first got their glimpse of Edward Furlong when he starred in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, as John Connor, at the age of 13. He also had a role in the high profile movie American History X, alongside Edward Norton. But growing up in Hollywood had a negative effect on Furlong, who has admittedly struggled with cocaine and heroin addictions over the years. In 2000, he checked himself into rehab and completed the program, but in 2004 he was arrested in a highly publicized incident when he drunkenly tried to release, or free, lobsters from a tank at a grocery store in Kentucky, and acting bizarre when the cops arrived on the scene. In 2006, though, Furlong married Rachael Bella, with whom he has a son. He says that he’s been sober since 2002.


12. Haley Joel Osment: This forever-boyish looking actor got his big break in the hit M. Night Shamalyn film The Sixth Sense, in which he uttered his famous line, “I see dead people.” He was 11 at the time and the role earned him an Oscar nomination. But in 2006, Osment was charged with a DUI and possession of marijuana after crashing his car into a black pillar after a night of partying. He was 18 at the time, making the charges against him more severe. He received probation and was sentenced to attend alcohol counseling and alcoholic anonymous meetings. He has since kept a low profile in the media, and most of his income these days is generated from doing voiceover work for different video game characters.


13. Tracey Gold: Tracey Gold’s first acting job came at the age of 4 when she was cast in a Pepsi commercial. Appearing in a few different canceled television shows afterward, Gold finally landed the role that put her on the map in 1985. She was cast as Carol Seaver on Growing Pains. Life seemed grand for awhile until Gold’s insecurities got the best of her. In 1988, Gold began ruthlessly dieting, and starving herself. This continued for several years and in 1991 she was cut from the show due to her gaunt appearance. Gold went on to recover from her anorexia, got married and had three children. But in 2004, she was arrested for driving under the influence after a car accident that injured her husband and two of her three children. While one suffered a broken clavicle and head lacerations, Gold’s newborn infant, who was also in the car, escaped unscathed. Gold has since gone on Oprah to talk about the incident.


14. Scott Schwartz: Whether this is a mess-up or a well-calculated financial move is a subjective call. Scott Scwartz is best known for playing the cute, pole-licking kid in the classic 1983 film A Christmas Story. But when his mainstream acting career began to fizzle, Schwartz turned to the sex industry. In the 1990s, Schwartz starred in over 20 X-rated films, and even won an award for one of his better roles. While Schwartz did turn to the sleazier side of the industry, however, he tried to do so with class, accepting mostly “non-sex” roles. In 2000, he left the porn industry to return to legitimate filmmaking.


15. Adam Rich: Adam Rich made his name starring on the hit 1970s TV show Eight is Enough playing the cute role of Nicholas Bradford. As he grew older, however, his cuteness began to fade and Rich turned to hard drugs for comfort, using cocaine, morphine, alcohol and hallucinogenics on a regular basis. He has said that he began smoking marijuana at the age of 12. Rich suffered a severe overdose in 1989 and has been arrested several times in the 1980s and 1990s for possession of drugs. His most publicized arrest occurred in 1991 when Rich smashed the window of a pharmacy in a robbery attempt. Almost as soon as he had made bail for that incident, he was arrested again for shoplifting. His run-ins with the law died down in the 1990s, and his career never picked up. Most recently, though, both arenas had a little action. In 2003, Rich had a role in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. That same year he was arrested for driving under the influence after running into a police car.


16. Britney Spears: We all know the saga that is Britney Spears’ life. Getting her start at an early age on The Mickey Mouse Club, Spears has been going through one of the more public drug-fueled downfalls in entertainment history. Her crazy and erratic behavior has been catalogued by a devoted following of paparazzi and some tattle-tale bodyguards. Spears shaved her own head in a drug-crazed moment in L.A. when she literally walked into someone’s beauty salon, picked up the shears and started clipping away. She ran in her underwear into the ocean, has been spotted sans underwear in a plethora of public appearances, and has been taken from her home in an ambulance after barricading herself in her bathroom with her toddler son. As a result of all this, Spears has lost custody of her children, has been to rehab more than once, and has been committed to a mental ward. Currently, she is still struggling to get better and deal with her mental illness.


17. Drew Barrymore: Drew Barrymore was 11 months old when she appeared in her first commercial. Six years later she landed a role in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster hit E.T. and became an overnight star. Soon after, Barrymore was partying in NYC clubs until all hours of the morning at the age of 10. Her struggles with substance abuse came and went at a very early age. According to her biography, Little Girl Lost, Barrymore had her first drink at age 9, smoked marijuana at age 10, and did cocaine at 12. Though her mother sent her to rehab, Barrymore relapsed, ran away from home, and then slit her wrists at the age of 13. Her mother sent her to rehab again and the second time it stuck. Today, Barrymore is still a major figure on the Hollywood scene. She consistently lands roles in popular movies and is part owner of a production company.


18. Corey Feldman: Just like his buddy Corey Haim, Feldman enjoyed a booming childhood acting career, starring alongside Haim in The Lost Boys and landing roles in films like The Goonies, Stand by Me, Gremlins and License to Drive (though he got his start in a McDonald’s commercial). But in the late 1980s, Feldman, like Haim, struggled with drug addiction to cocaine and heroin. While Feldman’s foray into the world of illicit substances was shorter lived, it was just as public. In 1990, he was arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine. He went into rehab shortly after and has been clean and sober since the early 1990s. Today, Feldman is married with one child and still acting, though more so in B-roles. He most recently appeared in a fictional-reality show with Corey Haim called The Two Coreys on A&E and was previously on The Surreal Life.


19. Mischa Barton: You know her as Marissa Cooper from The O.C., but Mischa Barton actually got her start acting in Off Broadway shows at the age of 9, starring first in a Tony Kushner play. She moved to TV playing a character on All My Children and then landing roles in other TV drama series. After Barton left The O.C., she landed some lucrative modeling contracts, representing Bebe and other A-list brands. But she proved she wasn’t perfect in 2007 when she was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of narcotics and marijuana. She pleaded no contest to the charges.


20. Keisha Knight Pulliam: Best known as Rudy from The Cosby Show, Keisha Knight Pulliam is said to have picked up a nasty cocaine habit while she was a student at Spelman College. She allegedly started the drug to lose weight, but got hooked. While sources say Pulliam did more than dabble with the substance, Pulliam has never gone public about any drug addictions. Today Pulliam still “dabbles” in show business and has modeled for a lingerie spread in Black Men magazine and appeared in a Chingy music video.