15 Child Stars Who Died Too Young, from Aaron Carter to Cameron Boyce
15 Child Stars Who Died Too Young, from Aaron Carter to Cameron Boyce
Alexandra Schonfeld, Samantha StutsmanTue, March 17, 2026 at 12:59 PM UTC
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Aaron Carter ; Malcolm-Jamal Warner ; Cameron Boyce.Credit: Mark Sullivan/WireImage ; Santiago Felipe/Getty ; Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
Over the years, Hollywood has mourned the loss of several former child stars who died far too soon.
Actors including Aaron Carter, Cameron Boyce, Dana Plato, Gary Coleman and River Phoenix all began their careers at a young age, rising to fame through some of the most memorable television shows and films of their time. Though they left a lasting mark on the entertainment industry, they tragically died young.
Most recently, in July 2025, The Cosby Show star Malcolm-Jamal Warner died while vacationing with his family in Costa Rica after he was “apparently swept away by a current.” The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) confirmed his cause of death as accidental asphyxiation by submersion. He was 54 years old.
"Working alongside him on The Resident was an honor. He brought so much depth, warmth, and wisdom to every scene and every conversation. One of the nicest in the business," actor Morris Chestnut wrote on Instagram following Warner's death. "Rest easy, brother. Your legacy lives on."
Here is everything to know about 15 child stars who died too young.
01 of 15
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Malcolm-Jamal Warner in 2024.Credit: Santiago Felipe/Getty
The former Cosby Show star died on July 20, 2025, during a family trip to Costa Rica after the actor was "apparently swept away by a current," according to a statement given to PEOPLE. Two days later, The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) confirmed that his cause of death was accidental asphyxiation by submersion.
Following his early success on The Cosby Show, on which he starred from 1984 to 1992, Warner's career continued to flourish with roles in Malcolm & Eddie, Reed Between the Lines, Major Crimes, Suits, The Resident and most recently, 9-1-1 and Alert: Missing Persons Unit.
Warner is survived by a wife and daughter, whose identities he kept private.
02 of 15
Corey Haim
Corey Haim.Credit: Joey Foley/FilmMagic
After landing his first movie role as a teen in Firstborn opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr., Haim went on to appear in films like Lucas, Murphy's Romance, The Lost Boys and License to Drive.
He and his best friend Corey Feldman — the pair was dubbed the "Two Coreys" — starred in eight movies together, even signing on to do a reality show together in 2007 called The Two Coreys that explored the pair's experience with drug addiction.
Not long after their series ended in 2008, Haim died at 38 from pneumonia.
03 of 15
River Phoenix
River Phoenix.Credit: George Rose/Getty
River was one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood in the early '90s thanks to his parts in iconic films like Stand by Me — his breakout role — Running on Empty and My Own Private Idaho.
The actor was just 23 when he died outside of the West Hollywood nightclub, The Viper Room, from a drug overdose in 1993. Phoenix had been at the club with his siblings, Joaquin Phoenix and Rain Phoenix, and his girlfriend, Samantha Mathis.
Joaquin and his fiancée, Rooney Mara, named their son River in a tribute to Joaquin's late brother.
04 of 15
Brad Renfro
Brad Renfro.Credit: Stephen Shugerman/Getty
Brad Renfro made his movie debut in 1994 in the film The Client with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon.
“I’m really lucky to love what I do and get paid for it,” he told PEOPLE when he was named one of PEOPLE’s “Top 30 Under 30.” “I’d do it for free if it’s good.”
Following The Client, Renfro appeared in movies such as Tom and Huck and Sleepers. Amid his success on-screen, Renfro found himself in trouble with the law, getting arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana at age 16 in 1998.
He later was arrested and sentenced to two years probation in 2000 for allegedly trying to steal a 45-foot yacht in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with a friend. Five years later, he was charged with driving under the influence. In 2005, he was caught in a police sting and charged with a felony count of attempting to possess heroin, later pleading guilty to the charge and entering rehab.
Renfro died in 2008, which was later ruled an accident and attributed to “acute heroin/morphine intoxication.”
05 of 15
Dana Plato
Dana Plato.Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Just over a decade after Plato's eight-season run on Diff’rent Strokes, the actress died in May 1999 at 33 from a drug overdose that was later ruled a suicide.
Plato had faced issues with drugs for years. In 1991, she was arrested for robbing a video store at gunpoint.
In honor of what would have been her 55th birthday, her former Diff’rent Strokes costar Todd Bridges called Plato "one of my best friends."
"I will never forget you and love you forever. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dana Plato R.I.P you are free my friend," he wrote.
06 of 15
Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman in 2003.Credit: Game Show Network via Getty
Plato's Diff'rent Strokes costar Coleman, who starred on the show from ages 10 to 18, also died in tragic circumstances after he sustained a brain hemorrhage in 2010 at 42.
His ex-wife, Shannon Price, claimed he fell, though family and friends suspected she had something to do with it, despite police saying there was no evidence of foul play.
Fifteen years later, Price took a voluntary lie detector test as part of A&E's Lie Detector: Truth or Deception, where she was asked about the events surrounding Coleman's death. When Price denied if she ever struck Coleman during their relationship or if she withheld aid to him following his fall, the test found her answers "inconclusive."
“As far as rendering aid, I could have helped him a little bit more," Price said on the A&E episode.
Price has never been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing in connection with her husband’s death.
07 of 15
Lee Thompson Young
Lee Thompson Young.Credit: Michael Tran/FilmMagic
More than a decade after playing the titular character on Disney Channel's The Famous Jett Jackson, Lee Thompson Young died at the age of 29 in 2013, NBC News reported.
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The Los Angeles County coroner later disclosed that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and had been taking medication to treat depression, per the outlet.
Following his time on the Disney Channel show, Young went on to land roles in Friday Night Lights and Rizzoli & Isles — his last on-screen credit before his death.
08 of 15
Cameron Boyce
Cameron Boyce.Credit: Jon Kopaloff/Getty
Boyce had made his mark as a Disney Channel superstar before he died at 20 years old. The actor, who starred in the Descendants franchise along with the Disney show Jessie, died in his sleep on July 6, 2019. His family told PEOPLE at the time in a statement that his death "was due to a seizure as a result of an ongoing medical condition, and that condition was epilepsy."
His family started the nonprofit Cameron Boyce Foundation following his death, that honors Boyce “by aiming to cure epilepsy through funding research, education and awareness campaigns while still supporting causes that were important to Cameron.”
09 of 15
Jonathan Brandis
Jonathan Brandis.Credit: Ron Galella/WireImage
Jonathan Brandis had solidified his status as a teen heartthrob in the 1990s with roles in The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, Ladybugs and seaQuest DSV. He continued acting into the late '90s and early aughts but in 2003, the 27-year-old died by suicide.
Jaleel White, who had recently filmed a pilot with Brandis for 111 Gramercy Park, writes in his book Growing Up Urkel that his friend's death felt like "a fallen soldier."
"I imagine that Jonathan felt he needed that pilot to feed his soul," White wrote. "I've never known an actor to ask me repeatedly about our pickup prospects the way he did when we shot 111 Gramercy Park. He was as much a veteran performer as I, our prospects for pickup should have been as clear to him as they were to me. It seemed to me that Jonathan, much like myself, had come to another career crossroads and 111 Gramercy Park would have offered him an honest chance at leading-man status.”
Brandis' father later told PEOPLE that he believed his son had an unaddressed mental illness.
"Jonathan was very smart and he was very polite and always easygoing," his father Greg Brandis told PEOPLE. "In a sad way, he was probably bipolar. [His death] wasn't due to the entertainment industry. I look back now, and in his 20s, he showed signs of manic depression. I hope that anyone suffering can go get help."
10 of 15
Aaron Carter
Aaron Carter.Credit: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic/ Getty Images
Carter became a household name in the late '90s and early 2000s as a pop star — releasing his first album at just 10 years old. During his early career, Aaron opened on tour for both the Backstreet Boys (a group that includes his brother Nick) and Britney Spears.
Later in life, Aaron was open about his struggles with addiction, substance abuse and mental health and sought treatment on multiple occasions. On a 2019 episode of The Doctors, he shared: "The official diagnosis is that I suffer from multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, acute anxiety; I'm manic depressive."
Aaron became a dad in 2021, welcoming son Prince with Melanie Martin, and continued making music, releasing LØVË in 2018 and Blacklisted in 2022. But, on the morning of Nov. 5, 2022, he was found dead in a bathtub in his California home.
Months later, the L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner reported that the 34-year-old had drowned after inhaling difluoroethane (a gas usually found in cans of compressed air) and taking alprazolam (a generic name for Xanax).
11 of 15
Anton Yelchin
Anton Yelchin.Credit: Tommaso Boddi/WireImage
After moving to L.A. from Leningrad, Soviet Union, at six months old, Yelchin kicked off his acting career at a young age, landing his first on-screen role in E.R. in 2000. A year later he appeared alongside Hope Davis and Anthony Hopkins in 2001’s Hearts in Atlantis at 11 years old. However his breakout role came in 2007's Charlie Bartlett and he later stared in J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot as Pavel Chekov.
He continued acting into the 2010s before a freak accident killed the actor at his home in 2016. Yelchin died at just 27 after his Jeep rolled backward and pinned him to the driveway gate.
“I’m devastated, a world without Anton is a lesser place,” Felicity Jones, Yelchin’s costar in the 2011 drama Like Crazy, said in a statement following his death. “He touched everyone he met with his honesty and humanity, we have lost a unique and profound soul.”
12 of 15
Sawyer Sweeten
Sawyer Sweeten.
Audiences met Sawyer Sweeten in 1996 when he landed the role of Ray Romano's on-screen son, Geoffrey, in Everybody Loves Raymond. His real life brother and sister played his siblings on the show as well. He played the character for all nine seasons of the series, and per IMDB, it was his last on-screen credit.
At 19, Sweeten died by suicide on April 23, 2015, while visiting family in Texas.
“I’m shocked and terribly saddened by the news about Sawyer,” Romano said in a statement released to PEOPLE at the time. “He was a wonderful and sweet kid to be around. Just a great energy whenever he was there. My heart breaks for him, his family and his friends during this very difficult time.”
Four years after his death, his family through the Sawyer Sweeten Foundation — along with Romano and his wife Anna as well as Phil Rosenthal, who created Everybody Loves Raymond, and his family — came together to dedicate a theater in Sawyer's name.
13 of 15
Heather O'Rourke
Heather O'Rourke in 'Happy Days.'Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Heather O'Rourke landed the role of Carol Anne Freeling in 1982's Poltergeist before appearing in projects including Happy Days, The New Leave it to Beaver and the horror film's two sequels.
Though before Poltergeist III premiered in June 1988, O'Rourke died at a San Diego hospital in February 1988 due to intestinal stenosis, the L.A. Times reported at the time. She was 12.
14 of 15
Judith Barsi
Joanna Kerns, Victor Dimattia, Alan Thicke, and Judith Barsi "Growing Pains."Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty
Judith Barsi had roles in Jaws: The Revenge, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Growing Pains (seen here, right) as a young, rising star in Hollywood.
At 10 years old, Judith and her mother, Maria Barsi, were murdered by the young actress' father József Barsi in their home in 1988. He shot both his wife and daughter before lighting the house on fire and shooting himself.
15 of 15
Kevin Clark
Kevin Clark.Credit: Paramount Pictures; Facebook
Nearly 20 years after starring as Freddy Jones, the kid drummer, in 2003's School of Rock, Kevin Clark was struck by a car while riding his bike in Chicago during the early hours of May 26, 2021.
Following the news of the 32-year-old's death, the movie's star Jack Black shared two photos with Clark to his Instagram alongside the caption: "Devastating news. Kevin is gone. Way too soon. Beautiful soul. So many great memories. Heartbroken. Sending love to his family and the whole School of Rock community."
Clark had continued his career in music into adulthood and most recently was a part of the band Jessie Bess and the Intentions, which had its first show just before the accident, per the Chicago Sun-Times.
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