Early Life and Career
Renfro was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was the son of Angela and Mark Renfro, who was a factory worker. He was raised from the age of five by his paternal grandmother, Joanne Barron Renfro, a church secretary.
When he was ten, Renfro was discovered by Mali Finn, a casting director for Joel Schumacher. Cast by Finn as the lead in Schumacher's The Client, Renfro starred alongside Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. His casting was announced in May 1993, and the movie was filmed in the summer of that year. Based on the bestselling John Grisham novel, it became one of the top-grossing films of 1994. In 1995, he won Hollywood Reporter's "Young Star" award, and was nominated as one of People's "Top 30 Under 30." That year, he played Huckleberry "Huck" Finn in 1995's Tom and Huck with Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He also won a second "Young Star" award, as well as the "Young Artist" award, for his performance in The Cure.
In 1995, Renfro was cast in Sleepers, based on the novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The film was directed by Barry Levinson and co-starred Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Dustin Hoffman and Brad Pitt.
In 1997, he starred opposite Ian McKellen in Apt Pupil, directed by Bryan Singer. The several films that followed gained little attention, the majority going straight to video. He played Leon S. Kennedy in a live-action preview of Resident Evil 2. Renfro went on to act in other films, including 2001's Ghost World and Bully, 2002's Confessions of an American Girl, and 2005's The Jacket. He also appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and completed filming on the film The Informers, co-starring Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton.
Renfro was the cousin of Jesse Hasek, lead singer of the band 10 Years, and featured in the first version of the music video for their song "Wasteland".
Renfro fathered one child, a son named Yamato Renfro, who was born in 2003. He was raised solely in Japan by his mother.
Renfro recorded an album under the name Frodad Band which performed all over L.A. and made appearances at Sundance Film Festival.
Read more about this topic: Brad Renfro
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or career:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Your success story is a bigger story than whatever you’re trying to say on stage.... Success makes life easier. It doesn’t make living easier.”
—Bruce Springsteen (b. 1949)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)