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The past two weeks have been pretty tragic in terms of unexpected deaths of young celebrity men. Between the death of Brad Renfro, 25, and Heath Ledger, 28, there’s been a lot of drama and sadness in Hollywood. Since Brad’s funeral, it’s come to light that he had a son, listed on in his obituary as “Y Renfro.” Us Weekly reports that Brad’s son’s name is Yamato Renfro, he’s four years old, and he lives in Japan with his mother. They also say Brad was seriously considering marrying Y’s mother, and had a longing for family.

Brad Renfro’s friend and on-off girlfriend Samantha Pearson spoke to the actor just 12 hours before he was found dead.

“At 11:45 p.m., he was drunk. The last thing I said to him was, ‘Please be careful,'” she tells Us Weekly in the latest issue, on newsstands now.

“He seemed happy, laughing, joking,” she told Us.

The morning after, on January 15, the 25-year-old was found dead in his apartment, the victim of a “possible overdose,” according to the L.A. County coroner, following a night of heavy drinking mixed with anti-anxiety medication.

In a cruel twist, the actor – best-known for starring in 1994’s thriller The Client – seemed to have finally turned the corner on his recent drug problems (a past abuser of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol, he
had a stint in rehab and legal woes).

Renfro’s roommates let him live with them rent-free to help him stay off drugs and a week before his death he visited his family in Knoxville, Tennessee. “In other years, we had to babysit him,” his cousin Jesse Hasek told Us. “This time, he was like, ‘I’ve got it figured out.’ It was the happiest I’ve seen him.”

In Knoxville, Renfro glowed about his 4-year-old son, Yamato, who lives in Japan full-time with his mom. (Yamato was “unplanned,” Hasek told Us, and his mother is “a friend he had over there.”)

“He asked me, ‘Do you think I should marry her? I like the feeling of family,'” Hasek recalled. “It crushed Brad that his kid lived on the other side of the world. He was saying, ‘I should bring them over permanently and be a part of their lives.'”

Renfro… got a tattoo that read “F–k All” inked across his back two days before his death.

[From Us Weekly]

This is so sad. Before he passed, Brad was known for his work in movies like Apt Pupil and The Cure. He had multiple arrests including grand theft of a yacht, heroin possession and DUI. He had two diffferent short stints in jail in 2005 and 2006.

Toxicology reports still aren’t back from the lab, so we have no official confirmation of how Renfro died. It sounds like he was in a bit of a two steps forward, one step back place in his life, but he was generally working on his issues. It’s a sad end for Brad and his family and especially his young son.

strong>Update: Renfro’s death was ruled an accident due to “acute heroin/morphine intoxication.”

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