

Still, the extent of her control over her son is unclear. Nearly every talk show appearance of his included an anecdote involving her, she answered his fan mail, and filmmakers often recalled her constant presence on set. Thomas and his mother, Claudine Gonsalves, were undoubtedly close. I think Jonathan really would have rather done the episode.” That comes down to a particular parental guidance idea that she had. "His mom was also deciding what he should or shouldn’t do. “Jonathan’s life at that point wasn’t necessarily all his own life," Karn said in 2016. Richard Karn, who played Al Borland, expressed concern over Thomas' autonomy in the decision.
#Man of the house jtt tv#
Did he want to do films? Did he want to go to school?" Allen told TV Guide. “He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films. As Randy Taylor jetted off to Costa Rica on an environmental study, Thomas happily returned to his private Los Angeles high school.Īt the time, he said he didn't appear on the May 1999 finale because he was "back east" looking at prospective colleges and "the whole timing thing didn't work out." But reports swirled of an outraged Tim Allen and a disappointed cast. Two years after his Emmy-deserving cancer scare episode, he chose to leave the sitcom at the start of its eighth and final season.

"Not that there's anything wrong with it, but they're rumors and you should always be kind of careful with that internet stuff." "Pretty much in Hollywood you're not anyone until it's rumored that you're gay, so I wasn't that upset about it," a 17-year-old Thomas said when Jay Leno asked if the speculation drove him "nuts" in 1998. He also faced unfettered media probing into his sexuality that would be unheard of for a celebrity, let alone teen star, today. Quinn's Jessica Bowman) and deftly dodged any questions about his dating life. Somehow, Thomas spent years graciously answering a stream of inane questions like, "When's the last time Tim Allen took you out for lunch?" ( David Letterman) and "Isn't Jonathan's hair the most beautiful color you've ever seen?" ( Kathie Lee Gifford).Īt a time when straightness was an assumed trait of the Teen Beat set, Thomas was never in a public relationship (though he reportedly dated Dr. In fact, looking back at old clips of him being alternately talked down to or fawned over by talk show hosts is painful. I've always been over that," he politely told Conan O'Brien of his three-initial moniker in 1998. And he definitely hated being called JTT. Hated the attention on his personal life. He loved acting, but he hated the magazine covers. In retrospect, the writing was on the wall from Day One. Three episodes of In Living Color followed-including one disturbing "Home Alone Again" sketch in which he played Macaulay Culkin fending off an intruding Michael Jackson-before he scored his career-making gig as Randy Taylor on Home Improvement in 1991. The tiny talent landed his first big role in 1989 playing Greg Brady's son on a Brady Bunch spin-off series. Which, apparently, was exactly what casting agents adored. He was small for his age and talked like a cool but world-weary philosopher patiently waiting for everyone to get on his level. A devout vegetarian, he was a self-described catch-and-release "fly-fishing nut" who, according to an Angelfire fan page, once caught an 80-pound halibut. After his parents split, he moved with his brother Joel and mom/manager to Los Angeles, where he finally broke into Hollywood at the ripe age of eight and adopted his brother's middle name as his new last name.Īs Thomas began to book modelling gigs and commercials, it became clear to everyone that this was a septuagenarian trapped in the body of a photogenic child star. Jonathan Taylor Thomas was born Jonathan Taylor Weiss in the not-so-little town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1981, and raised in Sacramento, California. He didn't run from a massive scandal or have a public breakdown, so why did the world's foremost teen idol disappear? Now 37, he hasn't walked a red carpet in 15 years, and has made only a few on-screen appearances.

And then–in his late teens, right around the time of Y2K-he quit Home Improvement, did a couple of indie films, and vanished completely.
