Corey Haim, a 1980s teenage heartthrob for his roles in Lucas and The Lost Boys whose career was blighted by drug abuse, has died at the age of 38.

Haim died on Wednesday morning at Providence St Joseph Medical Centre in Burbank, Los Angeles County coroner's Lieutenant Cheryl MacWillie said.

An autopsy will determine the cause of death and there were no other details, she said. Police Sergeant Michael Kammert said there's no evidence of foul play.

Haim had flu-like symptoms before he died and was getting over-the-counter and prescription medications, Police Sergeant William Mann said. The cause of death is unknown, Mann said.

"He could have succumbed to whatever (illness) he had or it could have been drugs. Who knows?" Mann said. "He has had a drug problem in the past."

Haim was taken by ambulance to the hospital from an apartment in Los Angeles near Burbank. The enormous complex is known as Oakwood and is popular with young actors, Kammert said.

Haim collaborated numerous times with Corey Feldman, the pair being dubbed "The Two Coreys".

Corey Feldman today mourned the loss of a ‘‘wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul,’’ who he said would ‘‘always be my brother, family and best friend’’.

‘‘I was awakened at 8.30 this morning by my brother and sister knocking on my bedroom door,’’ Feldman wrote on his official blog.

‘‘They informed me of the loss of my brother Corey Haim. My eyes weren’t even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face.’’

Feldman called for respect for his and Haim’s families while they grieved. ‘

‘We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference,’’ he said.

‘‘I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived.’’

Haim acknowledged his struggle with drug abuse to The Sun in 2004.

"I was working on Lost Boys when I smoked my first joint," he told the British tabloid.

"I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack," he said.

Haim said he went into rehabilitation and was put on prescription drugs. He took both stimulants and sedatives such as Valium.

"I started on the downers, which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck," he said. "But one led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day."

In 2007, he told US network ABC that drugs hurt his career.

"I feel like with myself I ruined myself to the point where I wasn't functional enough to work for anybody, even myself. I wasn't working," he said.

The Toronto-born actor got his start in television commercials at 10 and earned a good reputation for his work in such films as 1985's Murphy's Romance and his portrayal of Liza Minelli's dying son in the 1985 television film A Time to Live.

His career peaked and he became a teenage heartthrob with his roles in the 1986 movie Lucas, and The Lost Boys, in which he battled vampires.

In recent years, he appeared in the A&E reality TV show The Two Coreys with his friend Corey Feldman. It was cancelled in 2008 after two seasons. Feldman later said Haim's drug abuse strained their working and personal relationships.

In a 2007 interview on CNN's Larry King Live, Haim called himself "a chronic relapser for the rest of my life".

- As reported by The Age