Andrew Koenig and Corey Haim, RIP

I know it’s a little late but I thought I’d weigh in on the deaths of Andrew Koenig and Corey Haim.

I met Corey Haim and Corey Feldman at Comic Con when they were promoting the anniversary of The Lost Boys (which was being re-released on DVD with extra material). The two of them signed a promo sheet they’d brought and we traded small talk. I don’t remember what was said but they were really friendly and I didn’t get any hint that they didn’t want to be there or they were put out by having to sign autographs.

I know there’s a faction of people who will say ‘they were in promotion mode’ or ‘they’re actors, they were acting okay with being there’ but if you’ve spent time at Cons you know that there are some pretty unpleasant people to get autographs from.

*cough* Adam West *cough*

Like I said, I don’t remember the encounter well but I look back on it fondly. I liked watching ‘The Two Coreys’ and it would have been cool to see them make a comeback but at least the two Coreys got to do one last movie together, The Lost Boys: The Tribe (the straight to DVD sequel to the first movie in which the pair reprise their original roles).

As for Andrew Koenig, I didn’t know that he was ‘Boner’ from Growing Pains. I loved that show. I also didn’t know he was Walter Koenig’s son either. In looking over his imdb bio I found out that he was Joker in Sandy Collora’s “Batman: Dead End.”

Batman: Dead End was a fan-film made by Sandy Collora who is a special effects person who has worked on movies like Predator, The Crow, and Men in Black. The idea was for him to make a short film that he could use as director demo. This film debuted at Comic Con and played (I think twice – at least once) to a full house and received critical reviews.

The film pits Batman against his mortal enemy, The Joker (played to the hilt by Andrew Koenig). It was an amazing performance by everyone involved and it set the bar extremely high for any Batman movie that would follow it. A few years later, Batman Begins is released. Then Heath Ledger is Joker in The Dark Knight. I’m not going to compare the two as actors, Heath Ledger is untouchable as an actor. But Andrew Koenig’s ‘Joker’ made a huge impact on me, his performance was so good.

For months (maybe a year later) people were talking about a film that good reaching a movie theatre with the ‘Batman: Dead End” case intact. We knew that was never going to happen and it never did. I wish I’d gotten an opportunity to see more of Andrew Koenig’s ‘Joker.’

So Andrew and Corey are gone but I’ll always have fond memories of both of them. RIP guys, your work is appreciated.


Batman Dead End
World's Finest (the sequel)