Where in the Horror are they Now? Corey Feldman!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

COREY FELDMAN

THEN: Nearly every child of the Eighties wanted to be Corey Feldman at some point in their lives. The young actor had appeared in a number of iconic roles and even had the chance to be one of the dudes who offed Jason Voorhees – his character Tommy really gave it to the old hockey mask wearing maniac. When choosing to take a look back at the actor’s career, it was impossible to check out his impressive resume and not be completely in awe. With well over one hundred credits listed on IMDB, Mr. Feldman is most assuredly a cult legend in the horror genre. It’s gonna be tough, but let’s narrow down some of his coolest flicks and find out just what he has been up to lately.

As a young boy, Corey found early success on television. He was featured on a number of hit shows including “Alice”, “Eight is Enough”, “Mork & Mindy”, “The Love Boat” and tons more. He even appeared as a regular on the short lived series based on the hit film, “The Bad News Bears.” Funny enough, I remember the actor voicing “Young Cooper” in the 1981 Disney animated feature THE FOX AND THE HOUND – one of the few Disney flicks I actually saw when I was young. Looking back, this kid worked A LOT. With lots of television, he was becoming an instantly recognizable child actor and it was only a matter of time before he found himself kicking ass in horror.

In 1984, Paramount had the intention of letting director Joseph Zito really kill Jason Voorhees. And much like Amy Steel did to the burlap sack wearing killer in FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2, young Corey Feldman played a little mindf*ck with the mass murderer, now very familiar in his iconic hockey mask for FRIDAY THE 13th: THE FINAL CHAPTER (the fourth and clearly not final movie in the series). Corey played Tommy Jarvis, a child with a talent for creating groovy monster effects, and he was awesome in the role. When it got down to the final battle, this little guy shaved off his head and came to the rescue of his sister Trish (Kimberly Beck). To this day, this scene is one of the most memorable in the entire FRIDAY THE 13th franchise and a big part of that goes to Feldman screaming “DIE… DIE… DIE!”

If it had only been that badass F13 sequel, Feldman would still be remembered by many fans, but man oh man it was so much more! The same year he rocked it as Tommy Jarvis he also starred in the Joe Dante classic GREMLINS. This Steven Spielberg produced hit was a blast and a half, and just added another factor to Feldman’s movie cred. The next year also gave the actor a ton more exposure with a small cameo in FRIDAY THE 13th: A NEW BEGINNING as well as another Steven Spielberg production that rocked audiences everywhere… The Richard Donner directed THE GOONIES certainly proved to be ‘Good Enough’ for movie fans all over, plus Cyndi Lauper as well. Love that theme song!

In 1986, the actor appeared in the critical acclaimed box office hit STAND BY ME. The coming-of-age drama based on the Stephen King short “The Body” was another massive success for Corey who at this point seemed unstoppable. According to Wikipedia, King himself claimed this Rob Reiner directed feature was “the first successful translation to film of any of his works.” This funny, charming and emotional flick once again furthered Feldman’s successful career along with the rest of the cast including Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connell and Kiefer Sutherland. There are so many familiar faces that it almost feels like watching old friends. This classic is impossible to resist going back to every so often.

Here I am six paragraphs in and I am just getting to one of my favorite vampire flicks from 1987. THE LOST BOYS is a must watch anytime it is on, and Feldman and Jamison Newlander nearly steal the show as The Frog Brothers. The comic book loving amateur vampire hunters are ridiculously fun to watch to this day. And while their return to the franchise in the 2008 sequel LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE and 2010’s THE THIRST didn’t re-ignite the teen vamps, we’ll always have the original. This is one of the most iconic horror/action/comedy films, one that featured an incredible soundtrack and the coolest cast. Again, had Feldman just done one of the previously mentioned flicks, I would have been more than impressed.

Ever since the Eighties, Feldman has been in the media in some shape or form. It would be easy to talk about the tragedies he has dealt with and the friends he has lost, but I am here to simply look back at his incredible longevity. I’ve also had the great pleasure of interviewing this fine fellow a number of times and he is a wonderfully colorful and damn nice dude. Sure his career has had ups-and-downs, but he keeps on working and it would be amazing to see him return to FRIDAY THE 13th as Tommy at some point. Maybe its nostalgia, but that is still one of my favorite performances of his. And with numerous appearances on documentaries, fan events and conventions, he fully embraces the genre for which he is a huge part of and I respect the hell out of that.

NOW: With an unbelievable amount of film credits, Mr. Feldman is not about to take it easy it seems. In 2013, he released the music singles “Ascension Millenium” and “Duh.” That same year he revealed a ton about his life in the autobiographical “Coreyography: A Memoir.” That’s not including a ton of B-movies with titles like ZERO DARK DIRTY, ZOMBEX, THE ZOMBIE KING and even lending his voice to the character of ‘Slash’ in the animated series “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” – he voiced Donatello in the original live action films. The actor also has JOB’S DAUGHTER and THE M WORD (directed by Henry Jaglom, to be released on the big screen in May 2015.

Corey Feldman is a busy man. He is also a pretty cool – if a little eccentric – dude. And frankly, I dig folks who march to the beat of a different drum. This year he has a new single available on iTunes and Amazon called “Mercy” featuring B Howard, with more movies on the way. If you’d like to see what’s going on with this iconic actor, you can check out his official website. And if that’s not enough, you can follow him on Twitter or catch him on Facebook. I’d personally like to say “Cheers” to Mr. Feldman. Maybe one day we will once again see the original Tommy Jarvis face off against his ultimate foe Jason Voorhees. Now that would be epic! One can always DREAM A LITTLE DREAM can’t we?