Not everyone loves Raymond - enough

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32443743

Awful and terrible news. So many things. So many questions.

1. Was part of being in the show (and his twin and elder sister were too, so) anything to him doing this, as a young actor? There is a pattern, let's face it, of child actors going off the edge.
2. Why - again - does America let people buy guns aged 19 they can not only kill other people with but themselves?
3. Going back to my Q1, I guess, what's it like to lose a sibling, and how do you cope? I've never had to. I was an only child. I don't know how to I'd cope with losing a brother, let alone a twin.

[Renart]

Not everyone loves Raymond - enough

I've never watched the show, but it's awful any time someone commits suicide, especially when they're young.

Child actors really do seem to have a lot of trouble once they become adults. It always makes me wonder why some parents are so eager to push their kids into becoming TV or movie stars.

[WOM]

Not everyone loves Raymond - enough

According to IMDB, neither he nor his twin worked again in the past ten years. So I'd suggest they just backed away from show business by choice. I mean, even the Danny Bonaduces and Leif Garretts of this world find work in Hollywood doing something. Perhaps this was something else entirely.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Not everyone loves Raymond - enough

So I'd suggest they just backed away from show business by choice.

Maybe not, it's not really unusual for the work to dry up, especially as they get into their later teens.

It's particularly hard for actor-kids in the 15–17-age group to find work. Then it becomes very common for adults to play older-teen roles. Production companies would much rather hire an 18-year-old to play 15–17 years old. There are a bevy of reasons why it's more cost effective to hire a legal 18 than it is to hire someone under 18: They can work longer hours. They don't require a parent or custodian on set, and they don't have the expense of a tutor, nor do they have to put aside three hours a day for school.

My neighbour does set teaching, and reckons a high degree of disillusionment sets in around that age. Many child actors are particularly bright (as a group their SATs are way above average.) Because of what they do, they're also way more worldly than their peers. It's not so much pushy parents that are the problem, so she reckons, as smart kids having opportunities pulled out from beneath them at a vulnerable age.