It’s not too often with these ‘whatever happened’ articles that I actually get to say that the star in question is retired, especially when they’re still relatively young like Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The guy is only 39 years old at this time and has reportedly been retired as an actor since 2016 when he appeared on Last Man Standing. One could say that he had a fairly successful career, but they might have to go ahead and mention that a lot of it was spent acting in shows and movies that a lot of people barely remember, though there are at least a couple that many people will recall. At one point he was one of the most popular child actors around since he was given some of the most interesting roles and was able to cash in on the fact that people enjoyed his sense of humor and ability to deliver a line that could make them laugh. His popularity definitely surpassed that of his two on-screen brothers on Home Improvement since Zachary Ty Bryan was the only one that had a real chance to rival him in any way, but that chance faded pretty quickly as they started to grow up. Taran Noah Smith never really had any aspirations towards being popular and had no chance to keep up with the other two boys since he kind of failed to stick in anyone’s memory that deeply.
But with Thomas the popularity kind of came all at once since within the span of a few years he’d had an appearance on In Living Color as a Macaulay Culkin-type character for a Home Alone spoof, had begun his role as Randy Taylor on Home Improvement, and taken on the voice of the young Simba in The Lion King, one of the most celebrated Disney movies of the decade and of all time really. One could say that his popularity soared a little too high a little too quickly and that this was why he didn’t really last that long, but there are bound to be other reasons since child actors don’t have a perfect track record when it comes to the idea of maintaining their fame as they get older. Even those that started out as children and are still famous today had a few bumps and hiccups along the way that threatened to derail their career. But Thomas definitely tried to maintain the stellar reputation he was given for so long and earned to be honest since even as a younger actor he was pretty good at what he did. But as time went on, it became obvious that his star was dimming and people were no longer as enamored of him as they used to be.
Between guest star roles and movies that didn’t really go anywhere, Thomas has been kind of a friendly face that people enjoy seeing pop up now and again over the years, but that’s about all the time that people have for him apparently since once he’s showed up folks tend to focus on other things within the movies or shows that he’s been a part of over the course of his career. In fact, it’s easy to state that his time on Last Man Standing, what little time he had, was actually the most he’s been recognized and enjoyed for a while, and it might have something to do with the fact that he wasn’t being pushed to such a degree that people either had to take him or leave him entirely, which became kind of an issue when he started acting in movies and showing up a little too often. That tends to backfire sometimes in a very big way since while it can happen with some folks and be just fine, there are others that are better when taken in smaller doses and spread out over a longer period of time. Despite his popularity as a kid it’s easy to see that Thomas’ reputation didn’t really improve over the years, though he was appreciated when he did show up every now and then, much like the rest of the Home Improvement cast that made their way to Last Man Standing now and then.
It does appear that Thomas did decide to return to school to broaden his horizons, which is always something that’s easy to respect since having an education is something that many people would agree is a wise decision in this world. One can have all the money they need and a career that’s bound to take them places, but without a meaningful education, a lot of it won’t mean much when the roles dry up and the people are done admiring them. For all intents and purposes, Thomas has done just fine with his life to date, and it’s easy to think that we haven’t heard the last of him.
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