When Jonathan Taylor Thomas, then known as JTT, left Hollywood at the height of his career, young girls were left pining for the teenage hero.
The Home Improvement star, who turned 43 on September 8, was last seen in 2023, and his presence startled admirers who had a childhood crush on him.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas landed the part on Home Improvement, which starred comedian Tim Allen, after playing Greg Brady’s kid on the brief 1990 TV series The Bradys, a spinoff of The Brady Bunch.
When the show debuted in 1991, Thomas was just ten years old. He played the role of the middle kid and spent the following eight years growing up in front of a global audience, becoming a teen idol to millions of young ladies who adored him.
Regarding his enormous popularity, he told the New York Times, “You are a part of their life, and there is a lot that is owed them.” “But it’s hard because you want to please everyone, but you’re setting yourself up for failure if you try to do that.”
The 12-year-old Thomas, who was born in Pennsylvania, provided the voice of Simba in the wildly popular Disney animated feature The Lion King in 1994. The film made viewers laugh, cry, and sing.
“Simba’s like me,” says Thomas, who used his regular voice to play the little lion in the smash hit. “I just put my natural energy into it. Real curious, fun-loving, always getting into mischief.”
Switching his time between The Lion King and Randy Taylor on Home Improvement, Thomas shares that it was two years of being shuttled back on forth from one set to the next.
“I kind of had to say, ‘Sorry! It’s time to be Randy.”Sorry!” In 1994, Thomas told People, “It’s time to be Simba.” “You must get ready to transform into this completely new person. We’re not lions, after all.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas at Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California, USA, during Nickelodeon Big Help in 1996. (Image courtesy of FilmMagic, Inc./Jeff Kravitz)
Regarding his weariness, he remarks, “I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve done with full-blown migraine headaches.” Since I was eight years old, I had been going constantly.I wanted to take a little vacation, travel, and attend school.
In the next years, he voiced animated characters on The Wild Thornberrys and The Simpsons and had cameos on a number of television programs, including Ally McBeal, Smallville, and 8 Simple Rules.
He pushed himself with some more daring parts before leaving, such as a persecuted gay kid in Showtime’s Common Ground (2000) and a bisexual hustler in the independent movie Speedway Junky (1999).
Keeping his anonymity and playing those roles led to speculation about his sexual orientation, which he tactfully refuted in an interview with Jay Leno.
