Brad Renfro

Brad Barron Renfro (July 25, 1982 – January 15, 2008) was an American actor. He made his film debut at age 11 with a starring role in The Client (1994). Renfro went on to appear in 21 feature films and won several awards. In 2012, he was ranked at #63 on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars" list.

Prior to being cast in The Client, Renfro had no acting background and was living with his grandmother in a trailer park. Wanting to cast a "tough kid" who had the life experience to understand the character he would portray, director Joel Schumacher chose Renfro to play the role of Mark Sway. Renfro soon attracted a large fanbase as he continued to star in films such as The Cure, Tom and Huck, Sleepers, Apt Pupil, Bully and Ghost World.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Renfro experienced difficulties in his private life, including drug addiction and a series of arrests. He died at age 25 of acute heroin and morphine intoxication.

Renfro was born Brad Barron Renfro on July 25, 1982, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Angela Denise Olsen (née McCrory) and Mark Renfro, a factory worker. He was raised from the age of five by his paternal grandmother, Joanne Renfro, a church secretary, after his parents divorced. The actor reportedly did not have a close relationship with his father.

At the age of 10, Renfro was discovered by Mali Finn, a casting director for Joel Schumacher. He was recommended to Finn by retired Knoxville police officer and local D.A.R.E. program representative, Dennis Bowman, who was captivated by Renfro's charm and street smarts. He had no prior acting experience or training at the time. Finn had contacted various agencies that worked with youth; she was looking to cast a "tough" kid and settled on Renfro after looking at 5,000 such boys all over the United States. At the time, Renfro had been living in a trailer park outside Knoxville with his grandmother. "I wanted a kid who understood in the marrow of his psyche what it was like to grow up too soon," Schumacher later told The New York Times.

Renfro was cast by Finn in the lead role of Mark Sway in Schumacher's The Client, on the instance of John Grisham regarding that an established child actor not be cast, and that an unknown from Tennessee be cast for the role. His casting was announced in May 1993, beating out the likes of Macaulay Culkin, and the movie was filmed in the summer of that year. Based on the bestselling Grisham's novel, The Client became one of the top-grossing films of 1994. In 1995, he won The Hollywood Reporter's "Young Star" award, and in 1996 was nominated as one of People magazine's "30 Under 30" list.

Renfro played Huckleberry Finn in 1995's Tom and Huck. He also won a second "Young Star" award, as well as a "Young Artist" award, for his performance in The Cure.

In 1996, Renfro appeared in Sleepers, which was based on the novel of the same name by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The film was directed by Barry Levinson and Renfro played the younger version of co-star Brad Pitt's character. The following year, Renfro starred in Telling Lies in America, directed by Guy Ferland.