Happy 35th birthday Jonathan

Today, Thursday September 8th, 2016, it’s 35 years since Jonathan Taylor Thomas was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

At the age of 6 he started acting in commercials, and at the age of 9 he landed the role that should change his life forever – the role as Randy Taylor on the new ABC comedy series “Home Improvement“, starring along Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, and with his on screen brothers Zachery Ty Bryan and Taran Noah Smith – Home Improvement would become the #1 show on american TV, and the show ran for 8 successful seasons.

Along the years, Jonathan moved from the small screen at home to the big screen in the cinemas – first just as the raspy voice of the young Simba in Walt Disney‘s The Lion King. Since then in feature films like Man of the House alongside Chevy Chase, Tom and Huck with Brad Renfro and Rachael Leigh Cook.

Under much controversy, mainly in the media, Jonathan decided to leave Home Improvement during the 8th season, which became the shows last season, in order to focus on his education. However he didn’t leave the business, which Tim Allen didn’t like, but chose some more serious roles in movies like Speedway Junky and Walking Across Egypt, both targeted at a more adult audience, than his previous work.

Around the time Speedway Junky rumours about his sexuality, which were further ignited by the Showtime TV-movie in 3 parts “Common Ground“, which was a gay themed feature, following a small town over 3 generations.

After these Jonathan returned to the TV screen with a few guest appearances on some of the more popular shows of the early 2000’s, like Smallville and Ally McBeal.

His last “major” appearance were on the TV series Veronica Mars, where he guest starred on the April 12th, 2005 episode titled “Weapons of Class Destruction”. After that, he left the spotlight, doing a few cameos in small productions/shorts like Tilt-A-Whirl and The Extra.

Then in 2013 he re-appeared on Tim Allen’s new show “Last Man Standing“, a show created by some of the people that were behind “Home Improvement”.

So let’s celebrate Jonathan Tyalor Thomas’ 35th Birthday

Below the highlights of Jonathan’s work through the years.

80s

Jonathan born on September 8th, 1981
Voice of Spot in “The Adventures of Spot” in 1987

1990

Kevin Brady on “The Bradys”, which premiered on February 9th

1991

Landed his role as Randy on the hit TV-show “Home Improvement” which premiered on September 17th, 1991, 9 days after Jonathan’s 10th birthday.
Guests on “In Living Color” as Macaulay Culkin in the episodes “Home Alone Again” which aired on October 27th

1992

2nd Season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 16th

1993

3rd season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 15th

1994

When Walt Disney’s latest animated movie “The Lion King” premiered on June 12th, it was with Jonathan as the voice of young Simba.
4th season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 20th
When Nickelodeon premieres their annual “The Big Help” in October, Jonathan was the co-host along Michael Fishman, Tim Realbuto and Marc Summers.

1995

On March 3rd, Jonathan’s first full length movie “Man of the House” premiered.
5th season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 19th.
“Tom and Huck”, Jonathan’s 2nd full length movie premiered on December 22nd.

1996

“The Adventures of Pinocchio” premiered on July 26th. Jonathan provided the voice of and appears as Pinocchio when he finally is turned into a real boy.
Jonathan attended the 50th Emmy Awards on his 15th birthday, September 8th
6th season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 17th

1997

Along with Devon Sawa and Scott Bairstow, Jonathan has landed a role in the movie “Wild America” which premiered on July 2nd.
7th season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 23rd

1998

“I Woke Up Early the Day I Died” which featured Jonathan in a small role, premiered at the Athens Film Festival on September 12th
8th season of “Home Improvement” premiered on September 22nd
Jonathan went home for Christmas in the Walt Disney movie “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” which premiered on November 13th.
Jonathan’s final appearance on “Home Improvement” aired on December 8th, episode titled “Home for the Holidays”

1999

“Speedway Junky” is screened at the Reel Affirmations International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in October
“Walking Across Egypt” premiered on December 17th

2000

“Common Ground” premiered on January 29th
Jonathan guest stars on Ally McBeal in the episode titled “Do You Wanna Dance?” which aired on May 8th
Jonathan provides the voice on Tyler Tucker in “The Wild Thornberrys” which aired in the fall.

2001

“Speedway Junky” had its US premiere on August 27th
A new TV show is in the making at Fox called “An American Town”. The show was never picked up by the network.

2002

Jonathan had his first guest appearance as Ian Randall on the TV-show “Smallville” in the episode titled “Dichotic” which aired on November 19th.

2003

Jonathan lands a guest role on “The Simpsons” in the episode “Dude, Where’s My Ranch?” which aired on April 27th

2004

Jonathan had his second appearance as Ian Randall on “Smallville”, in the episode titled “Asylum” which aired on January 14th
The first of three episodes of “8 Simple Rules” featuring Jonathan as Jeremy airs on February 10th. Episodes titled “Opposites Attract”

2005

“Weapons of Class Destruction” aired on April 12th. This episode of Veronica Mars featured Jonathan as Ben
Jonathan appears in a short called “Tilt-A-Whirl”

2006

Jonathan makes his last appearance for a while in the short called “The Extra” which premiered on June 23rd. This marked the beginning of a 7 year hiatus for Jonathan.

2013

Re-joined with his former TV-dad Tim Allen, Jonathan made his first of 4 (so far) guest appearances on the show “Last Man Standing”.