Terminator 2 child star Edward Furlong NOW: Career ruined by drugs, prison and abuse

He was plcked from obscurity in 1991, aged just 13, to star in one of the decade’s biggest blockbusters.

A charismatic natural on screen, Terminator 2: Judgement Day should have made a massive star of the California kid in his acting debut.

Instead his teenage years were blighted by his mother and relatives fighting for custody over him and his new lucrative career. At the same time, the 13-year-od started a relationship on set with 26-year-old Jacqueline Louise Domac.

Furlong’s family later tried to prosecute her for statutory rape while she, in turn, charged Furlong with violence in 1999.

Furlong played the young John Connor in T2 and held his own opposite veteran stars Arnold Schwazenegger and Linda Hamilton.

He was discovered by casting director Mali Finn at the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club and brought in to audition, without knowing what the role or movie was.

In a recent 2017 documentary T2: Reprogramming the Terminator, Furlong revealed that he almost blew it.

He said: “Second audition, not so good. [James Cameron] told me, like, I didn’t do so well on that… She (Finn) came over to my house and she said, ‘Jim almost wrote you off the list, but you’re gonna get another chance.’ And I took it very seriously and I just went b—s to the wall. After I did my last audition, Jim, he was like, ‘Don’t tell anybody this, but you got the movie’ — and that was awesome.”

The rest is history, except it is not such a happy tale.

Notable roles followed in the 1990s in movies like Before and After, Little Odessa and Pet Sematary Two opposite major stars like Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson and Jeff Bridges.

He began to develop a drug problem in the late 1990s and has admitted that he was “on and off heroin and cocaine” from 1999-2003.

He has continued to work sporadically ever since but his career has been blighted by stints in rehab and prison, as well as numerous high-profile personal dramas.

Since 2000 he has had few notable film roles and picked up occasional roles on shows like CSI:NY.

His personal life was marred with accusations of violence and abuse from girlfriends.

Furlong married Rachael Bella on April 19, 2006 and they had a son that September 2006. On July 8, 2009, Rachael Bella filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and alleged in court documents that their son tested positive for cocaine, which led a judge to rule Furlong’s visits had to be supervised.

His troubles continued when his ex wife took out a civil protective order against him, which he violated in 2010 resulting in three years on probation. 

In 2009 Furlong became involved with another actress, Monica Keena, on the set of their straight-to-video 2009 remake Night of the Demons.

After being arrested for attacking her, Furlong was issued with another civil protective order. In March 2013 he hit headlines after being sentenced to 180 days in jail for a violation of probation after he “used force” against Keena, and for violation of the existing order prohibiting contact.

Furlong was arrested again in May 2013 and avoided a jail sentence after agreeing to go to rehab for drug addiction for 90 days, and to undergo 52 weeks of domestic violence counselling. 

Even so, he stil continues to work and his last high-profile project was the movie Winter Rose, alongside Billy Zane, Theresa Russell and George Lazenby.

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY IS ON ITV AT 10.05PM TODAY