Childhood & Early Life
Corey Scot Feldman was born on July 16, 1971 in Los Angeles USA to Bob and Sheila Feldman. Bob was a musician, who later formed a talent agency for grooming child artists. The couple had five children, out of which Corey was born second.
Corey’s elder sister Mindy is a member of Mickey Mouse Club. He also has a younger sister called Britney and two younger brothers named Eden and Devin. The children were brought up according to Jewish faith.
At the age of three, Corey appeared in his first commercial. After that he has appeared in over 100 commercials and 50 TV series. At that time, his mother Sheila Feldman acted as his manager. Coley had later said that he was forced by his parents to take up all these assignments.
At the age of fifteen, he was legally granted emancipation from them. According to him, he was worth $1 million by then; but when the accounts were opened, it had only $40,000. After this incidence, he started a movement called ‘Emancipation Proclamation of Hollywood’.
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Early Career
Corey started his career at the age of three by starring in CLIO Award winning Macdonald commercial. He then made guest appearance in number of television series such as’ One Day at a Time’ (1975), ‘Alice’ (1976), ‘Eight is Enough’ (1977) and ‘Mock & Mindy’ (1978).
In 1979, he got his first regular part in ‘Bad News Bears’. In the same year, Corey made his first film debut in ‘Time After Time’ as the boy in the museum.
His next film, ‘The Fox and The Hound’ was released in 1981. It was a Disney Land production and Corey acted in the role of Yung Copper. In the same year, he appeared in NBC’s musical comedy called ‘How to Eat Like a Child’.
From then on he began to appear in a series of hit films. Some of them were ‘Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter’ (1984), ‘Gremlins’ (1984), ‘The Goonies’ (1985), and ‘Stand By Me’ (1986).
In 1987, Corey Feldman appeared in ‘The Lost Boys’ along with Corey Haim. They were of the same age and were equally popular. From now on they began to appear in many teen oriented films together and started being referred as ‘The Two Coreys’.
Some of the projects where they acted together were ‘License to Drive, (1988),’ Dream a Little Dream’ (1989), ‘Blown Away’ (1992), ‘National Lampoon's Last Resort’ (1994), ‘Dream a Little Dream 2’ (1995), ‘Busted’ (1996), ‘Robot Chicken;’ (2006), ‘Lost Boys: The Tribe’ (2008) etc.
At the same time, Corey Feldman began to appear in number of films on his own. ‘The Burbs’ (1989) is one of them, where he acted with Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher. The other is ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (1990). In this film, Corey provided the voice of Donatello.
Interlude & Later Career
Alone and forlorn, Corey had started taking drugs at the age of fourteen and by the 1990s, it became a full blown addiction. Consequently, he had to take time off from his acting career to get admitted to a rehabilitation center.
On coming out from there he had to work hard to reestablish himself. He first started acting in a number of little known films and also took out an album titled ‘Love Left’. By and by, he began to get good offers and was asked to lend his voice to the character of Donatello in ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III’ (1993).
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The next major film to come his way was ‘Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood’ (1996). In this film, he took up the role of Caleb Verdoux, one of the main characters of this film. In the same year, he directed his only film ‘Busted’. Alongside, he appeared in number of TV series such as ‘Dweebs’, ‘Sliders’, ‘The Crow: Stairway to Heaven’ etc.
Up till now, he had taken part in around thirty television series. Out of them some like ‘The Surreal Life’ (2003), ‘The Two Coreys’ (2007) and ‘Dancing on the Ice’ (2012) were reality shows while in some others he made cameo appearance.
Corey has also made cameo appearance in several films, including ‘Pauly Shore Is Dead’ (2003), ‘Mayor of the Sunset Strip’ (2003), ‘Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star’ (2003), ‘My Date with Drew’ (2004) and ‘Space Daze’ (2005).
During this period Feldman also starred in number hit films. Some of these are ‘Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys’ (2004), ‘The Lost Boys: The Tribe’ (2008), ‘The Lost Boys: The Thirst’ (2010), ‘The Zombie King’ (2012) etc.
In 2013, he came out with his memoir 'Coreyography'. In the book, he talked about his life as a child actor, death of his best friend Corey Haim, his struggle with addiction and his sexual abuse in Hollywood while he was a child actor.
In 2014, he started hosting a show Corey's Angels Talk Live on Battlecam.com
In 2015, Corey Feldman and his girlfriend, Courtney Anne Mitchell, appeared on the reality TV show 'Celebrity Wife Swap'.
In 2016, he appeared on the NBC's news and talk show 'Today' in order to promote his album 'Angelic 2 the Core'.
Side by side, Corey Feldman began to emerge as a popular singer. He also became a member of a musical band called ‘Truth Movement’. While his first album ‘Love Left’ was released, in 1992, Feldman released his second album ‘Still Searching for Soul’, in 1999. His third album, ‘Former Child Actor’ was released in 2002.
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Major Works
According to Corey Feldman, ‘The Birthday’ (2004) is his best work. However, ‘Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter’, released in 1984, was his first film to become a blockbuster hit. It grossed $11,183,148 on the first weekend. Subsequently, it grossed a total of $32,980,880 at the U.S. box office.
Awards & Achievements
Corey Feldman won his first award in 1988. It was the ‘Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Horror Motion Picture’ for his performance in ‘The Lost Boys’ (1987).
In 2004, Feldman was honored with a ‘Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award’
In 2006, he received the ‘Best Actor Award’ at the Luxemburg Film Festival for his role in ‘The Birthday’ (2004).
In 2007, Feldman was awarded for ‘Legendary Work in Horror Films’ by Eyegore Awards.
Personal Life & Legacy
Corey Feldman married Vanessa Mercil, in 1989. The marriage did not last long; the couple divorced in 1993.
Feldman met his second wife Susie Sprague in January 2002 and the two married on October 30, 2002 on the set of ‘The Surreal Life’. The couple has a son named Zen Scot Feldman. This marriage too did not last long.
In October 2009, Susie filed divorce suit against Corey and cited irreconcilable difference as the cause. It was a protracted battle as Susie wanted sole custody of Zen and also spousal support, which Corey contested. Ultimately, the divorce was granted on August 29, 2014.
Corey Feldman married his girlfriend Courtney Anne Mitchell on 22 November 2016.
In October 2017, after Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual abuse, Feldman began a crowdfunding campaign to finance a film about his life that will expose the child sexual abuse, which he claims is quite rampant.
In November 2017, he accused children’s club owner Alphy Hoffman of sexually abusing him at the age of 12.
Corey is an advocate of animal rights and animal welfare. Himself a vegetarian, he had campaigned with PETA to promote vegetarianism. In 2009, he was awarded the ‘Paws of Fame Award’ by the Wildlife Way Station for his commitment to animal rights.
In addition, Feldman is a spokesperson for Amie Karen Cancer Fund. He is also a supporter of Global Green, an international charity that works for environmental protection.
