Yes, it’s that time again — time for another round of our series featuring ‘90s Teen Dreamboats. In the past, we’ve looked at JTT, Devon Sawa, Erik von Detten, and Andrew Keegan (click their names to view those articles), and today we’ve got another dreamboat to discuss — Jonathan Brandis. Sadly, while our other dreamboats are still around, Brandis passed away in 2003. It’s very sad to know he was struggling so much, but we’re here to celebrate him and all that he was able to accomplish in his young life.
Brandis started out his career as a child model at just two years old with his debut on a sales poster for Buster Brown clothing. By just five years old, he was starring in commercials for Kix cereal and Fisher-Price toys, among other products, and by six, he secured his first role on television on the soap opera One Life to Live. From there, things started to take off, with many guest starring roles on the likes of Full House, Who’s The Boss?, The Wonder Years, and Blossom.
Girls started to become obsessed with him after he had a couple film roles, which we’ll talk about below, but it was really Seaquest DSV that launched the teen girl frenzy. At one point, he was receiving about 4,000 fan letters a day, and sometimes he even would call some of the fans who left phone numbers, though they wouldn’t believe it was actually him calling. Damn, girls, you should’ve believed.
Sadly, we can’t hope for more from Brandis like we can from our other teen dreamboats, so we’ll just have to make do with what he starred in already. So let’s take a look back at some of his most memorable roles.
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990)
In The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, the sequel to 1984 film The NeverEnding Story, Brandis plays Bastian this time around (Bastian was played by Barrett Oliver in the original). Bastian gets sucked into Fantasia by the magical amulet on the NeverEnding Story book and must combat a forced called “Emptiness” taking over the land. What is most memorable about this movie is that Bastian has the ability to make wishes, but loses a memory every time he does. It’s not nearly as good as the original, but definitely still memorable.
IT (1990)
Ah yes, the famous Steven King miniseries based on his book, IT. Brandis stars as the younger version of Bill, the brother of Georgie, who is memorably taken by that creepy clown IT while wearing a yellow rain slicker. You may also recognize a young Seth Green in this miniseries as the younger version of Richie. To be honest, even with Jonathan starring in this miniseries, I could never bring myself to watch it. Clowns are creepy, man.
Ladybugs (1992)
In Ladybugs, Brandis stars as Matthew, the son of Rodney Dangerfield’s fiancee. Dangerfield’s character, Chester, has to get his company’s terrible corporate girl’s soccer team to win in order to gain a promotion, so he uses a secret weapon: Matthew, dressed up as a girl. Yes, the ole dressing up like a girl shenanigans! This movie is a lot of fun, and features Brandis in one of his few less serious roles.
Sidekicks (1992)
So, Sidekicks is silly, to be sure, but also kind of fun? Or maybe that’s just the teen girl inside of me who loved Jonathan Brandis? Brandis starred as Barry, a bullied teen with asthma who fantasizes about kicking the bullies’ butts like Chuck Norris could. The film is full of goofy fantasy sequences, and was even directed by Chuck Norris’ brother Aaron Norris. Is it high cinema? No. Is it ridiculous and enjoyable in its ridiculousness? Yes.
SeaQuest DSV & 2032 (1993 - 1996)
If you didn’t love Brandis as Lucas Wolenczak in Seaquest in the ‘90s, were you even a ‘90s girl? Seaquest started out as Seaquest DSV, and later became known as Seaquest 2032 after the show went through a time jump between seasons two and three. The show was about an underwater scientific vessel, and Brandis was the youngest member of the crew. He’s the only one who is in every episode of the show, as many of the cast either requested to be released from their contracts, or were fired come season three.
Two Came Back (1997)
In the ABC TV movie Two Came Back, Brandis starred alongside Melissa Joan Hart as two teenagers who get stranded on a lifeboat at sea, and struggle to survive until they are rescued. Though five people start out on this survival adventure, you can take a guess that not all of them make it to the end by the name of the movie. Was this the best movie in the world? No. But it features two of our favorite ‘90s stars, so we had to include it.
Were you a Jonathan Brandis fan? What was your favorite TV show or movie that he starred in? Let us know in the comments!
- Brandis wanted to transition to be a director, and his idol was Steven Spielberg, who he got to meet while working on Seaquest, as Spielberg was an executive producer of the first two seasons of the show.
- Brandis is featured in the documentary film Kid90 from fellow ‘90s star Soleil Moon Frye. They were good friends, and even talked about getting married someday.
- He dated The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Tatyana Ali for three years, from 1995 to 1998. They had originally met in 1993, and also starred in a TV movie called Fall Into Darkness in 1996.
- A series of commercials he starred in for Pacific Bell in 1988 were featured in a scene in the film Dumb and Dumber, where Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels’ characters cry while watching them.
- According to IMDB, Brandis starred in over 85 different commercials. We can’t find very many of them, but we were able to find one from 1988 for Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and two from 1992 for Cap’N Crunch.
- Brandis wanted to transition to be a director, and his idol was Steven Spielberg, who he got to meet while working on Seaquest, as Spielberg was an executive producer of the first two seasons of the show.
- Brandis is featured in the documentary film Kid90 from fellow ‘90s star Soleil Moon Frye. They were good friends, and even talked about getting married someday.
- He dated The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Tatyana Ali for three years, from 1995 to 1998. They had originally met in 1993, and also starred in a TV movie called Fall Into Darkness in 1996.
- A series of commercials he starred in for Pacific Bell in 1988 were featured in a scene in the film Dumb and Dumber, where Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels’ characters cry while watching them.
- According to IMDB, Brandis starred in over 85 different commercials. We can’t find very many of them, but we were able to find one from 1988 for Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and two from 1992 for Cap’N Crunch.
