Teenage hero Jonathan Taylor Thomas, also known as JTT, was at the top of his game when he quit Hollywood. Young girls were smitten with him.
Fans were shocked by how the Home Improvement star looked the last time they saw him, in 2023. On September 8, he turned 43 years old.
If you want to know what happened to the man who did the voice of Simba in The Lion King (1994), keep reading! Tim Allen cast Jonathan Taylor Thomas in the TV show Home Improvement. Before that, he played Greg Brady’s kid on the short-lived The Bradys, a remake of The Brady Bunch, in 1990.
Thomas was only ten years old when the show first aired in 1991. He played the middle child. Over the next eight years, he grew up in front of people all over the world, becoming a teenage hero to millions of devoted girls.
“You are a part of their life, and there is a lot that is owed to them,” he told the New York Times about how well-known he was. It’s hard because trying to please everyone is a surefire way to fail.
Thomas was born in Pennsylvania and played Simba in The Lion King, the incredibly popular cartoon Disney movie that made people cry, laugh, and sing.
Thomas says, “Simba’s like me.” He used his normal voice to play the little cat in the hit song. “I just used my own energy on it.” I like to get into trouble, have fun, and ask a lot of questions.
Thomas played Randy Taylor and The Lion King on Home Improvement. He remembers going back and forth between sets for two years.
“I had to take responsibility for what I did wrong.” Now is the time to be Randy. “Sorry!” Thomas told People in 1994, “It’s time to become Simba.” “You need to get ready to become this completely different person.” “Are you aware that we’re not lions?”
During the next few years, he did voice work for cartoon characters on The Wild Thornberrys and The Simpsons. He also made guest appearances on Smallville, Ally McBeal, and 8 Simple Rules.
Before he left, he played more difficult parts, such as a gay kid who was bullied on Showtime’s Common Ground (2000) and a bisexual con artist in the independent film Speedway Junky (1999).
Because of these choices and his desire to keep his privacy, rumors spread about his sexuality, which he kindly rejected in an interview with Jay Leno.
She told the show, “I wasn’t too upset about it because in Hollywood, you’re pretty much nobody until it’s rumored that you’re gay.” Thomas was 17 years old at the time. When reacting to online rumors, it’s fine to do so, but you should be very careful.
“No, no, no, no, I’m not,” Thomas said in response to Leno’s question about his sexuality. “I’m not.”
In an interview with The Advocate, he later turned down the stories, saying they came from the website CyberSleaze.
Thomas said, “I’m sure my recent roles have proven it.” “I was shocked at how willingly people accepted it.”
He then quit Hollywood to follow his dream of “going to school,” which broke many hearts.
As soon as he graduated from Chaminade College Preparatory School in New York in 2000, he went to Harvard to study history and philosophy. After that, in 2010, he got his degree from the School of General Studies at Columbia University.
It was cool to be in a big library with lots of books and people. “It was a new experience for me,” he says.
He thanks them for a “great time in my life” and says he “never took the fame too seriously.” But that doesn’t make me who I am.
“I wink when I think about the past,” he said. I choose to think about the good things in my life instead of the fact that I’ve been on several magazine covers.
Thomas says that he has “no regrets” about leaving Hollywood when he has free time.
That being said, he did not completely disappear. In four episodes of Last Man Standing from 2013 to 2015, the former teenage hero got back together with Allen, who used to be his Home Improvement TV dad. Besides that, he directed three episodes of the show.
The famous person was seen in public in 2023, two years after being seen walking his dogs. Fans were very interested in the photos.
The star dressed casually in pants, a brown sweater, and a black tuque.
After his sudden appearance, fans raced to the comments section to say what they thought.
One fan says, “JTT, my elementary school crush,” and another says, “Like many other kids his age, he was my childhood crush.” I’m glad he got away from Hollywood’s crazy people.
Someone else asks, “Who knows what happened to a child star and teen idol like him?” In Hollywood, kids are rarely treated well.
“Of course he looks different today!” said someone else. in reference to Thomas’s famous haircut from Home Improvement. Men in their forties don’t often wear their hair in bowls. There were many happy people in his early years.➕
