In interviews, Thomas often tried to reckon with the meaning of his fame. "I can't tell you how many shows I've done with full-blown migraine headaches." "You have school, friends, learning your lines and making sure your performance is up to speed," Thomas told PEOPLE in 1994.
#TIM ALLEN MAN OF THE HOUSE MOVIE#
He worked almost 10-hour days on the set of Home Improvement and then spent his summer vacations on movie projects, like Man of the House. In 1994, his mother Claudine told PEOPLE Thomas received so many fan letters she couldn't answer them all personally, and she was thinking of hiring an employee to assist her. Thomas just wanted some time away from the spotlight.īecause he really was in the spotlight. Some child actors deal with the endless parade of attention and spectacle of their youth with addiction and other unhealthy coping mechanisms. This routine - protecting the voice, flying from Los Angeles to Florida and back again for voice recordings - would go on for two years before the film was finished and premiered in 1996.
As soon as he was cast, Thomas was under strict instructions to protect his voice by refraining from shouting and drinking lots of hot lemon with honey. Producers fell in love with Thomas' emotive voice as soon as they heard it. The role was a large one, expected to shoulder the enormous emotional burden of the film as - spoiler alert, but you've seen The Lion King, right? - young Simba has to witness the death of his father Mufasa and be told (erroneously) by his treasured uncle Scar it was all his fault. "He's real curious, fun-loving, always getting into mischief."
"He's a lot like me," Thomas said, as reported on his (still live, and last updated in November 2018) fan site.
After that, he became instantly recognisable in a way child stars often are, so much so he was cast to voice young Simba in the 1996 Disney cartoon The Lion King. The actor was just nine when he was cast in the role that would come to dominate his (and almost every adolescent on the planet's) teen years. It launched the careers of Allen, Pamela Anderson (who starred as Allen's sexy assistant Lisa) and, of course, Thomas.
#TIM ALLEN MAN OF THE HOUSE SERIES#
The sitcom, starring Allen as a regular, tool-loving dad in downtown Detroit, was based off Allen's stand-up comedy and became one of the most popular television series of the decade. When the aliens escape Area 51 (as they are apparently threatening to do) and look for a microcosm of each decade, someone will hand them Home Improvement to represent the '90s. We need to ask ourselves: what happened to Jonathan Taylor Thomas' hair? Because the answer to that question will also reveal what happened to the star himself. Since then, Thomas has not appeared on a single television or film screen. (This, I barely need to add, is not teen idol cut-out-and-keep poster hair.) The last time the actor was seen on-screen, in a guest appearance on Home Improvement co-star Tim Allen's sitcom Last Man Standing, the hair was chocolate brown and pouffed back. JTT (as he was known) did exactly that, cutting those floppy tufts back into a frosted crop that, as he got older, faded into a darker brown than the golden locks he was so known for.
The hair was the thing!īut when your hair is so much a part of your visual identity, it's hard to grow up and, eventually, out of it. The hair stole the show on Home Improvement the hair was irrepressibly cheeky in Man of the House the hair that wasn't visible, though whose cuteness was nevertheless implied, in his voice performance in The Lion King.