Can you believe that Erik Per Sullivan is 29 years old? This is the guy that a lot of people looked at as Dewey during his time on Malcolm in the Middle, and the guy that disappeared from acting after his final appearance in 2010, and he was one of the best little brother characters in sitcoms in his time since he had the perfect look and voice that allowed him to be the poor kid that had to weather the abuses of his brothers and yet was tough enough to find ways to get back at them whenever the chance presented itself. The word is that after his final performance in the movie Twelve he bowed out of acting and has been keeping a pretty low profile ever since. It was understood that he decided to focus on his schooling and was attending college the last anyone heard of him, but even now it’s kind of hard to find out what he’s been doing since it would appear that he’s done whatever he could to stay off the radar. He’s even missed the Malcolm in the Middle reunions over the years apparently, deciding that it’s best just to stay away and do his own thing. That’s pretty easy to respect since some folks get out of the business and don’t even consider the thought of going back for their own reasons.
As the character of Dewey though he was one of the highlights of the show since each character brought their own special contribution to the program. Hal was the goofy dad that had little to no real control over the house and had almost no impulse control. Lois was the iron-fisted mother with ALL the control and who had a temper that could boil or snap depending on the situation. Francis, the oldest brother, wasn’t always seen on the show but was the rebellious one that lived to give his mother grief, while Reese was the bully, the troublemaker, and one of the main two characters that made Dewey’s life a little harder. Malcolm, the show’s namesake, was the intelligent brother that was still not above bullying Dewey since one of the core lessons of the family unit in this show was that survival depended on being tough enough to take punishment and dish it out when necessary. That brings up Dewey, who was the youngest for quite a while before another baby was introduced to the story. Where his brothers were smarter and more physical than he was, Dewey was all about manipulation since he used his cuteness on more than one occasion to get what he wanted, and often did his best to cut his brothers out of whatever he was after, as they constantly did to him. For all that this family did to each other, it was amazing to see that they were still a tightly-knit unit that would look after each other and even protect each other.
When it came to being skilled and/or intelligent, the boys all had their own areas of expertise, even though with Francis it was hard to state that he was anything but cunning and could always find a way to exploit others. During the finale, it was discovered that he was fond of being an office worker since he loved the structure of it, which was something that the boys never really had in their home since Hal and Lois were a mess and as much as they tried couldn’t impose order for long in their house. Reese turned out to be a genius when it came to the kitchen since he could cook and bake like none other, while Malcolm of course was a genius, but was arrogant beyond belief since he had to throw his intelligence in everyone’s face. Dewey, on the other hand, besides being a master of manipulation, was a musical genius since the kid could play a musical number with very little practice and even won a championship with his skills, which went unnoticed obviously since his family often had to deal with too many other problems to give him the notice he needed and wanted. His musical talents were his main way out of the house no doubt since by the end of the show it was established that everyone was doing just fine where they were at, and Dewey and Jamie were the last two kids in the house, at least until Lois figured out that she was pregnant again.
As of now, it would appear that Erik is just fine without the accolades since he’s been off the radar for a while now and has stayed that way. Hopefully whatever he’s doing is bringing him success and joy at this time, since he’s responsible for a lot of fond memories that were made during his run in the business.
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