August 20, 2006 – (Manila) – After reading stories of Hollywood child stars going bad with the likes of Robert Blake, McCaulay Culkin, and recently Lindsay Lohan, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that sweet and charming, innocent looking Haley Joel Osment would join in the ranks.
The former child star who is now a young man at age 18 is now facing a DUI or Driving Under the Influence of alcohol when he crashed his car in suburban Los Angeles last month.
Osment who at age 11 was the youngest actor to be nominated for a best supporting actor in 1999 for the M. Night Shyamalan thriller “The Sixth Sense,” was also arrested for possession of marijuana.
Seven years have since passed when Osment played the role of a nine year Cole Sear who claimed to see and talk to dead people, won the hearts of viewers of the film and even a vote of approval from acting peers to win a nomination in the Academy Awards.
Osment has grown up and somewhere and somehow, young artists of Hollywood are always on the track to become victims of bad circumstances and in their later years show degrees or levels of violence and self abuse.
The general or often obvious perception or view on as to why these things happened are usually attributed to the inability to handle the fame and glory, as well as an interrupted normal child development caused these maladies in the life of young artists.
Among the more popular child stars who virtually grew up in front of the movie camera and ended life in a sad manner was Judy Garland, star of the hit classics, “The Wizard of OZ,” “A Star is Born,” and “Meet Me in St. Louis,” started acting at the age of 14 and died of barbiturate over dose at a young age of 47.
Garland rose to fame as one of the finest singing stars of an era of musicals on film but her childhood life as one of the many known stars of the then film giant MGM studios was not ideal and described as intense with insecurities and trials.
In 1950, Garland was hospitalized for a cut on her throat by a broken glass which was hyped up by the media back then as a failed attempted suicide and throughout the sixties, her singing and performance level was beginning to slide down because of substance abuse and alcoholism until her death due to overdose.
Another popular case of a child actor whose life went bad includes Robert Blake who began his career as part of MGM’s shorty films on kids titled “Our Gang” at the age of six in 1939 and later starring in the 23 films under the “Little Beaver,” series for Republic Pictures in 1944.
Robert Blake is well known for his three year stint as a private eye specializing in disguises on the Emmy winning “Baretta” that aired in 1974 to 1979.
At age ten, Blake complained that he often had a difficult time blending and relating with kids of his age and he even accused his own father of abuse.
At the age of 14, Blake would run away and resurface years later after serving in the U.S. Army and pursuing his acting career after taking up acting lessons in Hollywood.
In 2002, Blake was arrested on suspicions that he murdered his second wife Bonnie Lee Bakley, a woman known in Hollywood as someone taking advantage of older Hollywood men for the money.
Blake was acquitted for murder and conspiracy on March 2005 but he is now bankrupt and working as a ranch hand in California, as a result of the case filed against him and for the damages from the wrongful death of Bonnie Lee Bakley.
Haley Joel Osment may not follow the path of Garland or Blake, maybe not even the foot steps of “Home Alone” star McCaulay Culkin who at age 17 got married and sued his parents for custody and control of his own wealth.
Osment will begin college this September and if his DUI and drug possession case sticks, he will face six months in jail for the time being, time off from making pictures, being a college kid celebrity living in cloud nine.
Will imprisonment change Osment and make him better? Nobody knows!
But Osment, in the reel world played a darling little boy who talks to dead people, who also portrayed a nice soul-searching unwanted robot boy and a more recently a kid who learned to pay forward every good deed is now one of the kid’s in Hollywood who got nasty in real life.
Reel or real, its always sad that somewhere under the bright klieg lights of Hollywood, a child with real talent would get lost in all of the confusion of power broking, of abuses in power and the lure of the false happiness brought about by limelight.
The former child star who is now a young man at age 18 is now facing a DUI or Driving Under the Influence of alcohol when he crashed his car in suburban Los Angeles last month.
Osment who at age 11 was the youngest actor to be nominated for a best supporting actor in 1999 for the M. Night Shyamalan thriller “The Sixth Sense,” was also arrested for possession of marijuana.
Seven years have since passed when Osment played the role of a nine year Cole Sear who claimed to see and talk to dead people, won the hearts of viewers of the film and even a vote of approval from acting peers to win a nomination in the Academy Awards.
Osment has grown up and somewhere and somehow, young artists of Hollywood are always on the track to become victims of bad circumstances and in their later years show degrees or levels of violence and self abuse.
The general or often obvious perception or view on as to why these things happened are usually attributed to the inability to handle the fame and glory, as well as an interrupted normal child development caused these maladies in the life of young artists.
Among the more popular child stars who virtually grew up in front of the movie camera and ended life in a sad manner was Judy Garland, star of the hit classics, “The Wizard of OZ,” “A Star is Born,” and “Meet Me in St. Louis,” started acting at the age of 14 and died of barbiturate over dose at a young age of 47.
Garland rose to fame as one of the finest singing stars of an era of musicals on film but her childhood life as one of the many known stars of the then film giant MGM studios was not ideal and described as intense with insecurities and trials.
In 1950, Garland was hospitalized for a cut on her throat by a broken glass which was hyped up by the media back then as a failed attempted suicide and throughout the sixties, her singing and performance level was beginning to slide down because of substance abuse and alcoholism until her death due to overdose.
Another popular case of a child actor whose life went bad includes Robert Blake who began his career as part of MGM’s shorty films on kids titled “Our Gang” at the age of six in 1939 and later starring in the 23 films under the “Little Beaver,” series for Republic Pictures in 1944.
Robert Blake is well known for his three year stint as a private eye specializing in disguises on the Emmy winning “Baretta” that aired in 1974 to 1979.
At age ten, Blake complained that he often had a difficult time blending and relating with kids of his age and he even accused his own father of abuse.
At the age of 14, Blake would run away and resurface years later after serving in the U.S. Army and pursuing his acting career after taking up acting lessons in Hollywood.
In 2002, Blake was arrested on suspicions that he murdered his second wife Bonnie Lee Bakley, a woman known in Hollywood as someone taking advantage of older Hollywood men for the money.
Blake was acquitted for murder and conspiracy on March 2005 but he is now bankrupt and working as a ranch hand in California, as a result of the case filed against him and for the damages from the wrongful death of Bonnie Lee Bakley.
Haley Joel Osment may not follow the path of Garland or Blake, maybe not even the foot steps of “Home Alone” star McCaulay Culkin who at age 17 got married and sued his parents for custody and control of his own wealth.
Osment will begin college this September and if his DUI and drug possession case sticks, he will face six months in jail for the time being, time off from making pictures, being a college kid celebrity living in cloud nine.
Will imprisonment change Osment and make him better? Nobody knows!
But Osment, in the reel world played a darling little boy who talks to dead people, who also portrayed a nice soul-searching unwanted robot boy and a more recently a kid who learned to pay forward every good deed is now one of the kid’s in Hollywood who got nasty in real life.
Reel or real, its always sad that somewhere under the bright klieg lights of Hollywood, a child with real talent would get lost in all of the confusion of power broking, of abuses in power and the lure of the false happiness brought about by limelight.
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