“Even when we were kids, the term ‘child actor’ was shorthand for ‘future f—ed up adult,’” wrote actor Clint Howard, the rare child star to become a fully functioning adult, in his memoir The Boys, written with his brother, the equally productive director Ron. “Then as now, Hollywood is littered with cautionary tales.” The Howard siblings notwithstanding, a cursory glance at the history of show business reveals countless performers who charmed audiences as youths, fell into irrelevance as young adults, and drifted into disrepute, scandal, or otherwise sad outcomes.

Judy Garland was subjected to a prescription drug regimen at the behest of her avaricious studio employers that resulted in addictions that led to her death. Her sometime co-star, Mickey Rooney, transitioned from youthful verve to doddering crankiness as he lived long enough to become a spokesman for elder abuse. Corey Haim traded stardom for substance abuse on his way to a premature burial; the other Corey, the irrepressibly talented Feldman, has transitioned to a music career that suggests someone whose frame of reference begins and ends with 1988-era Michael Jackson. Jonathan Brandis killed himself; Dustin Diamond, “Screech” on Saved by the Bell, went bankrupt, was arrested, and went on Celebrity Fit Club before he died young.