Biography

Jonathan Brandis

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Born in Danbury, Connecticut, USA, to Greg and Mary, Jonathan Brandis began his career at age 5, acting in several television commercials. He also appeared in small parts in several films and TV shows before his first starring role in the 1990 film The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). He starred in popular films such as Ladybugs (1992) and starred as Lucas Wolenczak in Steven Spielberg's television series SeaQuest 2032 (1993). He doubled up his high school courses so he could finish a year early for his role on SeaQuest. After his career stalled for a bit, he was hoping his role in serious drama film Hart's War (2002) would relaunch it. However, most of his scenes ended up being cut from the finished film. This caused him to fall into a deep depression in which he would drink heavily and tragically end his own life on November 12th, 2003.
- IMDb mini biography by: nd3

Auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). He lost out to Hayden Christensen.
He performed in more than 85 commercials.
Was in a relationship with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)'s actress Tatyana Ali for 3 years.
He was the only actor to appear in all 57 episodes of SeaQuest 2032 (1993).
On November 11, 2003, Brandis was found hanging in the hallway of his Los Angeles apartment. He was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and died the following day of injuries sustained from the hanging. Brandis did not leave a suicide note.

Teen magazines keep writing that my eyes "twinkle" when I talk. Look, I'm a guy. I don't twinkle, you know! You can say that my eyes "sparkle" maybe, but not "twinkle", alright? Got that, teen magazine writers?!
I want to direct, I want to be part of something creative, something with quality. My biggest fear as an actor is being involved in something mediocre, or being mediocre myself. I've taken classes on screen-writing and, of course, I read a lot of scripts. Writing is what I'd really like to move towards. Right now, though, it just doesn't pay the mortgage.
My friends would probably describe me as silly. And honest. And that I think about things a bit too much.
[speaking in 1994] I want to be remembered as an actor who put in some good work in the beginning of his career, even better work at the end of his career and slowly, successfully made the transition into writing and directing.
Roy Scheider was cool. I learned quite a bit from him.

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