Jonathan Brandis Was One Of The Biggest Heart Throbs

Jonathan Brandis started acting at a young age. He made his acting debut in One Life To Life as Kevin Buchanan in 1982. Prior to that, he was a child model. By the time the 1990s came, Jonathan was a teen heartthrob who appeared on covers of teen magazines and received thousands of fan mail.  He was getting four thousand letters a week. 

In 1990, he portrayed Bill Denbrough in the television miniseries It, which also starred other well-known actors like John Ritter, Tim Reid, Richard Thomas and Seth Green. 

Jonathan starred in Ladybugs with Rodney Dangerfield, Sidekicks with Chuck Norris and was in Neverending Story 2: The Next Chapter. He had a lot of movies and TV shows on his resume and it had appeared that he was going to be able to transition from a child star to having success as an adult. 

But like a lot of other teen heartthrobs, Jonathan’s stardom began to decrease. He wasn’t on top like he was when he was younger. By that time, he was in his 20s and he wasn’t getting parts. Going from being one the most loved actors to not getting any work was hard for Jonathan.

Jonathan had gotten a part in a movie called Hart’s War. Which starred Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. He thought it would have been his comeback, but his scenes were cut from the final cut. He was devastated. He thought that this was going to put him back on the map, get his career back on track. 

On the night that Jonathan passed away. He was hanging out with some friends in his apartment. They said that Jonathan was depressed over his career and that he was drinking heavily. His father had said later on that Jonathan had signs of bipolar disorder. 

His death wasn't due to the entertainment industry. I look back now, and in his 20s, he showed signs of manic depression. I hope that anyone suffering can go get help.

Later that night Jonathan left the apartment, nobody thought anything about it. It wasn’t until he didn’t return back to the apartment when they went to look for him. They got to the hallway and found that Jonathan had committed suicide by hanging. He died from his injuries the next day. He was 27 years old. He didn’t leave a note.

Going from child star to an adult actor is hard. Everyone looks at you like your still that little kid or they don’t have the same success has they did and it starts to take a mental toll on you. When you start acting at a young age, it’s the only thing you know and it’s hard to do anything else. You want to still be known and keep that light shining, but everyone moves on.

Mental health in the film and TV industry is challenging. There are people who want to get help and will learn how to cope with their mental health or they will dive deeper into their struggles and do things that will cause them their lives. We always want actors to do well as they get older, but it’s hard since they want to relive those moments from their past and recreate it, but it never works out well.

Even will the resources they have and being able to afford to get help, they will refuse because they think they don’t have a problem or they knew their struggling, but don’t want to do anything about it. There’s no shame in asking for help. Nobody’s going to judge you. The more help you get, the better you’ll become.