Jonathan Taylor Thomas was at the height of his career when he stepped away from Hollywood, leaving young girls yearning for the teen heartthrob, then known as JTT.
The Home Improvement star – who turned 43 on September 8 – was last spotted in 2023 and fans who spent their younger years crushing on him, were shocked over his appearance.
Keep reading to learn what happened to the actor who famously voiced Simba in Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King!
After appearing as Greg Brady’s son on the short-lived 1990 TV series The Bradys, a spinoff of The Brady Bunch, Jonathan Taylor Thomas earned the role on Home Improvement, which starred comedian Tim Allen.
Only 10 when the show premiered in 1991, Thomas, who played the middle child, spent the next eight years grew up in front of an international audience, reaching a stratospheric level of fame as a teen heartthrob to millions of adoring young girls.
“You are a part of their life, and there is a lot that is owed them,” he told the New York Times of his rabid popularity. “But it’s difficult because you want to make everyone happy, but if you try to do that, you’re setting yourself up for failure.”
In 1994, the Pennsylvania-born Thomas, 12, voiced Simba in the hugely successful Disney animated film The Lion King, a film that made fans 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 had to kind of go, ‘Oops! Time to be Randy’…’Oops! Time to be Simba,’” Thomas told People in 1994. “You have to prepare yourself to become this totally different person. I mean, we’re not lions, right?”
‘Full blown migraines’
In 1998, after leaving Home Improvement before its final season, Thomas started his retreat from the spotlight.
“I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve done with full-blown migraine headaches,” he says of his exhaustion. “I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old…I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break.”
Over the next few years, he had guest appearances on several shows, including, Ally McBeal, Smallville and 8 Simple Rules and loaned his voice to animated characters on The Wild Thornberrys and The Simpsons.
‘Blatant lie’
Before stepping away, he challenged himself with some edgier roles as a bisexual hustler in the indie film Speedway Junky (1999) and as a persecuted gay teen in Showtime’s Common Ground (2000).
Those roles, combined with maintaining his privacy, sparked rumors about his sexuality, which he gently denied while speaking with Jay Leno.
“Pretty much in Hollywood you’re not anyone until it’s rumored that you’re gay, so I wasn’t that upset about it,” Thomas, then 17, told the host. “Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but they’re rumors and you should always be kind of careful with that internet stuff.”
Is John Baker caught up on Kristin? Jonathan Taylor Thomas guest stars on Friday’s new episode of #LastManStanding! pic.twitter.com/6fjmNqcbRj
— Last Man Standing (@LastManStanding) January 29, 2014
When Leno directly asked if he’s gay, Thomas replied, “No, no, no, no, I’m not. I’m not.”
Later speaking with The Advocate, he again shot down the rumors, which he explains started on a website called CyberSleaze.
“It was just a blatant lie put on the internet and then it was like a feeding frenzy. And I’m sure it was validated by my recent roles,” Thomas said. “What startled me was how willingly people accepted it.”
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