Image Credit: Everett CollectionWe all remember our first love. Mine was particularly memorable because it was very obviously one-sided. He was cute. He was funny. He was perfect. SIGH. And I got to see him once a week…on ABC. And therein lies the problem. I was crushing on Randy from the hit series Home Improvement. Yeah, I’d never met him (minor details, people!) but he was still the man of my house. To solidify my love, I owned and re-read one of those tween photo books full of classy shots of JTT looking pretty fine. I’m sure I still have it somewhere in my childhood home.
Spoiler alert: We didn’t work out. But I’ve grown up since then, and so has he! Today, Jonathan Taylor Thomas turns 29. So happy birthday, JTT! (Makes you feel old, right?)
To celebrate his day of birth, I bring to your attention of my favorite JTT roles:
- Randy Taylor is obviously his best-known character. Each week we got to see the smart, funny Randy deal with the hardships of being the middle child. He might have been the second-born Taylor son, but he was always No. 1 in my heart.
- JTT gave a voice to young Simba in 1994′s The Lion King. I couldn’t wait for him to be king either. Unfortunately, that meant a voice change from JTT to Matthew Broderick. Still, Thomas made his mark on the Disney classic.
- He’s a real boy! JTT brought puppet to life as Pinocchio in the The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996).
- And in 1997, Thomas took us on a ride to the wild side with the movie Wild America. This time he was the youngest (but still cutest) of three brothers.
What’s your favorite JTT role, PopWatchers? And know he turns 29 today, what other ’90s stars are you nostalgic for?
where is he now?
My guess is living of Home Improvement residuals.
Didn’t he go to Harvard?
Yes, he did, but he didn’t graduate. The most recent info I can find is that he was attending Columbia University for his bachelors degree.
I heard he went back to his birth name (Jonathan Weiss) and is a movie producer in Vancouver.
About Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Several people have said he is in Vancouver. Can anyone confirm this – thanks.
Loved the villainous roles he played on “Smallville” and “Veronica Mars”!
Yes, VM!
Those are his memorable childhood roles but what about those great roles he did post-Home Improvement? Common Ground was a great movie on Showtime that really displayed what he was capable of portraying on screen and the fun I’ll Be Home for Christmas.
As for best childhood movies? You chose his lesser known roles. He was great to watch in Tom and Huck and Man of the House.
As for where he is now, I hear Vancouver.
My family watches I’ll Be Home For Christmas every year. The JTT love runs strong in my household.
He was my first celeb crush and will always have a place in my heart. Happy Birthday JTT, hope you have some new projects coming up
Man of the House of course! really, I loved anything he was in. He was my first celeb crush and I had a poster of him in my room when I was 6, even though he was 15.
happy bday and i love you, jtt. you were the first person i stalked when my family latched onto this new thing called “the internet”.
choosing the hottie in wild america is a toughie, as we must not forget the hot-factor provided by devon sawa.
Oh, sweet Jesus, I had the most painfully massive crush on Devon Sawa. It was totally pathetic, but once I watched Little Giants….oof, I was majorly in tween-love. And then, and then, when he showed up as the real-boy Casper…oh my.
OMG, I was obsessed with real-boy Casper. I would always rewind that part where he dances with Kat. I was a weird kid.
“Little Giants”! Me too! I thought I was the only one. I think he was the first boy I ever had a crush on. Plus I loooooved him in “Now & Then.”
yes!!! little giants and real-boy casper. sooo frickin hot..entire sleepovers revolved around those movies. i was incredibly sad when casper went back to ghost form in order to save kat’s father from his own stupid actions. bah.
Ha, I spent my tween years vacillating between an obsession between JTT and Devon Sawa. I LOVED them. When they cast Wild America with the two of them I thought my fantasy land would explode and then my friend won tickets to the premiere and it was like the skies had opened up and I had went to heaven. My mom didn’t always let me buy Tiger Beat or whatever mag it was so I used to rip out fave photos at the market and pocket them. Ah memories. Looking back, I get the Devon crush but not the JTT.
JTT, Devon Sawa, and Andrew Keegan were my trifecta. I could never pick a favorite!
ditto.
It was JTT, Devon, Rider Strong & Jonathan Jackson for me…good times!
OMG I used to LOVE Jonathan Jackson. I use to make my mom buy me Tiger Beat SO I could have all 3 of their pics! Sigh where is Andrew Keagan and Rider Strong at these days.
YES!!!! Oh are all those boys so, so good!!!
I miss ’90s cutie-pies!
YESS!! the mighty ducks…good god, how i loved the mighty ducks. jonathan jackson was sooo cute…as was the adam banks character.
Yeah JTT and Devon Sawa were tops for me. I love saying Devon’s last name.
OMG Andrew Keegan.
That was my trifecta too.
Matthew effing Lawrence. I don’t get what all the fuss over Joey was about, Matthew is far more attractive and the better actor.
I’ll always remember him as Randy on Home Improvement.
My favourite role for him? I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Though the last thing I remember seeing him in was an episode of Smallville, back in either season 1 or 2.
I loved him so much when I was in fifth grade. Tom and Huck was my favorite of his, but Man of the House was a close second!
when he came out of the closet
Since “The Lion King” is one of my favorite movies of all time, I’ve gotta go with that one…especially since Simba is SO much lamer as an adult.
Seeing this made me so happy!!! I absolutely LOVE JTT!!! He was my first crush!!!! I saw him in so many movies and tv shows!!! Home Improvement, Man of the House, Tom and Huck, Lion King, Pinnochio, I’ll Be Home for Christmas!!! I love him so much!! I just rewatched Man of the House and Tom & Huck; Man of the House was one of my favorite movies when I was younger!! such a hilarious movie with Farrach Fawcett and Chevy Chase!!!! He was my favorite brother on Home Improvement!! I hated the episodes that he wasn’t in!!! Gosh I am still in love with him!!! He is amazing!!! This seriously made my day!!! Thank you so much!!! Now after I finish all my homework that I have I will have to watch Man of the House again!!!! So it will probably be tomorrow b/c I have so much reading to do, but still Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!! You seriously just made my average day turn into an AMAZING day!!!! Gosh I love JTT!!!!!!
Funny, I was just chatting with a gal from work last week about Devon and the big “Casper” reveal that started our crushes on him LOL!
Ha! I love this! I used to have the biggest crush on him when I was young. I had all the posters up on my wall and loved watched him on Home Improvement. Too funny!