“I realize that I’m smaller than other kids my age.”
When Jonathan Taylor Thomas was just a toddler, his mother, Claudine, recognized something special about him. It wasn’t just because Jonathan was her son; there was a special spark in him. “Even when he was eighteen months old,” Claudine told People, “he seemed older than his age, and he was really outgoing.”
When the family moved from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Sacramento, California, Jonathan was four and a half years old and his brother, Joel, was eight. It wasn’t long after the move that Jonathan put to use his “something special.” He started modeling, and when he was eight he landed a major TV commercial for Burger King.
The camera loved Jonathan, and viewers couldn’t keep their eyes off the blond-haired, blue-eyed cutie when he came on-screen. And when this little guy spoke — well, his husky, almost-man-sized voice was an unexpected addition to his appeal. “I thought the whole idea of being on TV, being recognized, and having a good time was interesting,” the now seventeen-year-old actor told People around the time he was the voice of the young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King.
In 1991, when Jonathan was nine years old, his parents split up. His dad, Stephen, stayed in northern California, and Claudine moved Jonathan and Joel down to L.A. And that was a major step for Jonathan’s career. The TV sitcom Home Improvement was his big break. Millions of viewers all over America, and eventually the rest of the world, fell in love with the Taylor family headed by actor Tim Allen. As Randy, the middle son, Jonathan grew from being everybody’s little brother to a solid-gold teen idol heartthrob.
Growing up on TV
Of course, one of the weird things about being a child star on a long-running sitcom is that you literally grow up in front of millions and millions of people. You can’t hide certain things, like the onset of teenage acne or the squeaky break of a boy’s voice change. Jonathan wasn’t growing as tall and as fast as other kids his age. When he was twelve years old, the very mature-for-his-age actor told 16 magazine, “I realize that I’m smaller than other kids my age. Like, obviously Home Improvement’s older brother, Brad, played by Zachery Ty Bryan, is bigger than I am. He’s really younger than I am, but I don’t let that bother me. Actually, in the business that I’m in, acting, it helps me because I can play younger.”
Even back then, Jonathan has a good attitude about something that often causes a lot of needless anxiety in preteens and teens. Continuing his conversation with 16, Jonathan explained, “I don’t mind being small. My dad’s about six feet two. My mom’s five feet five. My brother’s five eleven — so obviously there’s some height in my family. It just depends when I’m going to get it. The show has dealt with it. My character mentions his height. The director and I discussed this, and there was a lot of truth [in the episode]. At times I do say, man, I wish I was bigger. But I’m still very competitive in sports. I’m a good soccer player. I’m up there on my team, and it’s just a matter of how you think about it. If you always dwell on it and day, ‘Oh, I’m short. I’m never gonna be anything. I’m short so I can’t play sports,’ it’s never gonna happen. But if you focus on something else, focus on liking that soccer ball as hard as you can, on throwing a ball, you’re gonna do the best you can. You’re gonna have a very good performance.
“Sometimes I get teased, but the people who tease, I sometimes think, have no other words in their vocabulary. All they know how to do is tease. They can’t have an intelligent conversation with anybody, so they just tease people. I just let it go in one ear and out the other. I don’t really pay attention to it. Yeah, it’s something that a lot of kids have to deal with. And I know that I’m gonna be taller when I’m older, and heck, if I’m not, no big deal.”
“When I go home … I’m just Jonathan.”
Three years and not much of a growth spurt later, Jonathan still had the same attitude about his height. He even showed a sense of humor about it. A Movieline interview with Jonathan was supposed to deal with his then-upcoming summer movie, Wild America. Instead, the conversation, which was taking place in a popular restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, was constantly interrupted by fans coming over to the booth where Jonathan for an autograph. One little boy came over to the booth where Jonathan and the reporter were sitting and said, as he motioned to a little girl at another table, “My cousin likes you, but she’s scared of you.”
“Scared?” Jonathan laughed. “I’m only five foot four. What’s to be scared about?”
In another article, this time in Seventeen, Jonathan once again joked about his size. The writer had brought up his easygoing reputation, that you never hear about Jonathan Taylor Thomas throwing a temper tantrum. “I’m not one to toss my eight around — I’m only a hundred ten pounds,” kidded the then-almost-sixteen-year-old.
During the late summer of 1998, Jonathan’s personal growth made the news once again. No, there weren’t headlines declaring how many inches Jonathan had grown. Instead, it was the announcement that even though he was probably the most popular teen on TV, he was cutting back his work schedule. In the 1998-1999 season of Home Improvement, Jonathan would only appear in three episodes, because he was determined to spend the year focused on school. Just as Jonathan turned seventeen, on September 8, 1998, he was entering his junior year in high school. “Colleges really look at your junior year,” Jonathan explained in the press release. Though he’s always been a straight-A student, Jonathan really wanted to concentrate on his education at this point. He’s determined to get into a top school, perhaps even an Ivy League school like Harvard or Yale, and he wants to be prepared.
Those who really know Jonathan Taylor Thomas weren’t surprised by his decision. The youngest superstar has always approached his career and his life with that kind of self-awareness and confidence. “The industry is neurotic and weird,” Jonathan once observed to Premiere, “and so when I go home and I play basketball with my friends, I’m not Jonathan Taylor Thomas, I’m just Jonathan.”
Just Jonathan — a young man who doesn’t worry about the things he can’t control but dedicates himself to the things he can. That makes Jonathan Taylor Thomas seem ten feet tall!
Got Issues Much? Celebrities Share Their Traumas and Triumphs
By Randi Reisfeld & Marie Morreale
Published by Scholastic (1999)
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