Jonathan Brandis would be 50 today 💔

Lived in Houston for a year with my Dad, two weeks after going back to NY one of my friends called to let me know that Chuck Norris was about to film a movie at the H.S. I just left.

I still think it's cool that I can watch that movie and see a lot of my old classmates including one of the girls I had a crush on.

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_1JackMove@reddit

You need to do yourself a favor and watch Way of the Dragon with he and Bruce Lee fighting to the death in it. Classic.

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Emergency-Pack-5497@reddit

That's the main thing I wanted to see in Rome, the location of Bruce Lee and chuck Norris' fight to the death

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_1JackMove@reddit

I'm with you friend. I'd have wanted to see the same lol.

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HYThrowaway1980@reddit

Oh I’ve seen that. But he isn’t the star of the film, an his name isn’t on the poster. I’ve also seen his turn in Expendables 3 or whichever one it was.

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No_Trainer_1258@reddit

That reminds me to watch Missing In Action againas I haven't seen those in about 30 years...

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Electronic_Repeat_81@reddit

Have you seen the David Lynch version?

here’s the trailer

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BadPunners@reddit

You're great. You're wonderful. Everyone likes you.

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mid_tier_drone@reddit

yall wouldnt believe how hard im grinning every time i pull off the stupid takedown he used vs the bully (?) in sidekicks when grappling

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somethingsoddhere@reddit

Part of wonders if he was groomed like the majority of celebrities in the Epstein files.

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Going as far back as Judy Garland and Shirley Temple reporting harassment from studio heads like Louis B. Mayer, to Jane Fonda's abuse and pressure to "appease men in the industry", to Corey Feldman and Todd Bridges, and more recently Quiet on Set revealing the abuse at Nickelodeon from late 90s to early 2000s. As if the pressure of being a child star wasn't enough to wreck their mental health, they also had to endure these disgusting power dynamics? I airways wonder why would any parent want this for their kids, knowing what we know?

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IceXence@reddit

Often, the parents are abusers too. They pressured their children into those careers.

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FluffySpell@reddit

There's a documentary on Netflix or Hulu (can't remember which) called "Bad Influence" all about a group of kid YouTubers and the shit that went down in the house. The answer is money. They do it for the money.

There was one woman in the documentary talking about how the parents lived in a guest house on the property and all the filming was done in the main house but the parents "weren't allowed" in the main house and they were so blinded by all that sweet sweet YouTube money they ignored SO many red flags.

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karebearjedi@reddit

I know he tried to tell everyone about Rodney Dangerfield sitting in his dressing room butt ass naked and everyone laughed at him. He was definitely a victim, but likely not one of Epsteins. Most likely one of Weinsteins victims. I feel so badly for him. He deserved the world and just got abuse instead

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littlespoon1@reddit

Wait, I feel like I haven't heard the dangerfield stories? He was a perv?

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karebearjedi@reddit

He was a well known perv, but people looked the other way

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karebearjedi@reddit

https://youtu.be/CwSh3bqq72c?si=07FXq0tHIc7nSdO9

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Queasy_Dig_8294@reddit

Holy crap I had never heard that. Now I want to cry all over again if that is what he was out through.

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blueeeyeddl@reddit

Tbh I assumed something like that happened to him given everything we’re learning about Hollywood and the way it treats child stars.

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thisisstephen@reddit

Corey Feldman told us about the abuse of 80s child stars years ago.

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cherryberry0611@reddit

I’ve thought that too

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Nonametousehere1@reddit

I've had the same thought,too...

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Embarrassed_Dig_986@reddit

He is technically 50

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al_brownie@reddit

I had a giant poster of his face from one of the teen magazines.

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amoreenero@reddit

I had such a crush on him! Gone way too soon. 😔😔😔

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nyXhcinPDX@reddit

TIL he's been dead for 23 years. RIP

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go_west_til_you_cant@reddit

My #1 crush back in the day. Rest in peace.

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JessBx05@reddit

Seaquest DSV was my #1 tv show in year 7 because of him.

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Dreaming_of_Rlyeh@reddit

It was Grade 10 for me. I didn't realise he died in '03. My memory was always that he died in the late '90s, not long after DSV ended.

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MSmtnMomma@reddit

He died on my birthday. If I had one birthday wish come true.

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greenwhiteredblack@reddit

No disrespect to space colonization, but this show had me coming for this type of future more. I mean at least we have a few hotels, which is much more than anything we've done in space, but imagine if someone with Musk's wealth was into oceanography in the past 30 years where we could be. Under the sea probably

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Just-a-Guy-4242@reddit

Titan…

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LadyLoki5@reddit

Yesss! I used to watch it every week with my mom, I had no idea what was happening in the show most of the time lol just made dreamy heart eyes at him 😄

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Simple-Chemistry-878@reddit

Yessss. Definitely. My mom teased me about it constantly.

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SmallRocks@reddit

Woah! That’s a show I haven’t heard of in ages! I wonder how it holds up.

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karebearjedi@reddit

Season 1 kinda holds up because they tried to base it on science. The rest.... well I can see now why it got canceled.

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weeeeelaaaaaah@reddit

Oh come on! The later seasons were awesome! Although I'll never figure out why they renamed it "Sealab 2021'...

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karebearjedi@reddit

Lolol fair I'll just always be salty over how they treated Roy Schneider. He dared to complain about the direction of the show so they hired Ironside as the new captain and made Bridger the bad guy out of spite.

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balding_git@reddit

they’re all enjoyable for their own reasons but ya s1 is the best.

michael ironside and the deluise brothers make the rest worth watching but it goes a bit weird. still fun to watch!

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TheVenetianMask@reddit

Last I checked the CGI stuff hadn't aged well at all.

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Leading-Summer-4724@reddit

Yeah I weirdly didn’t know he’d passed so young until I went to re-watch the show on streaming. Got a gut punch from IMDB when I looked him up to see how he was doing.

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Aggressive-Oil-4125@reddit

Yes!!!!

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kinetic_cheese@reddit

Same! I would have normally had zero interest in a marine-based sci-fi show, but I watched every week religiously because of Jonathan.

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WittyWitWitt@reddit

Oh I remember this on a Saturday afternoon.

It didn't last long though did it?

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marla_hooch_spacecat@reddit

Same!

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Simple-Chemistry-878@reddit

Same. Was so sad when I heard what happened...

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HeyPrettyLadyMaam@reddit

Same. I watched Ladybugs so much I ruined 2 vhs tape😂. He was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen 😭 I was so in love with him.

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thelaceserpent@reddit

I tried rewatching it again after my sister died (I was going through a watch all our favorite movies phase) and omg did it not age well 🙈

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CharlieEvans81@reddit

Oh, it absolutely did not. The 90's were so wild.

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CharlieEvans81@reddit

Ladybugs is the reason why I played soccer in high school! I love this movie.

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MellifluousManatee@reddit (OP)

Mine too. As someone with depression, it still hits so hard.

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dystopika@reddit

He was a fellow bicentennial kid. I've always struggled with depression and hearing about people who've taken their own lives always hits a little harder. Especially people around my age.

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DEIreboot@reddit

gif

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EclipseCaste@reddit

100%. Poor love

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SparklyTree_1754@reddit

Same!

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Tenaciousgreen@reddit

Same!

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Additional_Egg7024@reddit

Same first crush I can recall

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

"Fall into darkness" with Tatiana Ali and eve from days of our lives was my favorite movie with him. He was such a cutie 😢

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wasabinski@reddit

Patrick Ball (Dr Langdon in The Pitt) looks a lot like him

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

Omg I see it now

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Starscream147@reddit

Big time.

I thought I saw a ghost first time I saw him.

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americanadvocate702@reddit

The clip of him on Connan O'Brian outing the creepy elite is wild. He says Rodney would come out in a robe with nothing underneath constantly

gif

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AmIYourNeighbor@reddit

So wait, he was “outing the creepy elite” AND committed s••cide? Given what we know now, that seems suspicious.

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youshantnome@reddit

There’s a really dark blind item about him on set of one of his last movies. I think he was cut out of it and it was supposed to be his comeback. The story of the blind item was that other actors in that set were sleeping with underage girls in the country they were shooting in. Jonathan spoke up about that not being right and was then ostracized by the rest of the cast.

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

Yes "harts war". Then he was supposed to be in a new series and I don't think it got picked up. His career kind of sounds like it would've gone the way of mark-paul gosselaar. Great actor, great looking but every show gets canceled soon after it starts.

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Starwaverraver@reddit

He looked so different in later life, I wouldn't have recognised him

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AsparagusOverall8454@reddit

He does not look well in that picture.

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

I wonder if he started drinking?

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absentlyric@reddit

He reminds me a lot of Nick Stahl, he probably would look similar to him today.

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DrAsthma@reddit

Damn. There's a name I haven't heard in a long time. There for awhile Nick Stahl seemed to be a ticket to a good flick. If you've never seen in the bedroom, it's amazing.

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ShortBrownAndUgly@reddit

Wow. His hair was kind of this visual calling card I think

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MintTealGecko@reddit

oh wow. Why is it that milestones hit harder? Much love to the bicentennial babies.

Yesterday I learned an attractive struggling actor acquaintance took his own life over the weekend. I had thought of checking in on him at Easter but didn't. It's busy season at work and we weren't actually close. I was listening to a family member tell a story that was really close to something that had happened to the actor and realized it had been a couple years since we'd had a real conversation.

My younger naïve self was angry in 2003 like someone definitely should have helped Jonathan like it was that easy... Take QPR training if you can, reach out when you can, be as kind as you can, and be kindest to yourself... mental illness is a tough beast to battle.

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sapphireskiesx@reddit

The only person I ever sent fan mail to. 🤍

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bedheaderbug@reddit

Loved ladybugs in 6th grade! May he RIP

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LuxyontheMoon@reddit

He talked about Rodney Dangerfield refusing to wear clothes on that set.

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GarblingCumfarts@reddit

That was pretty much common knowledge about Rodney on set. Dude just wanted to wear a robe and nothing under. The dude gave no fucks. The dude did not abide.

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vonnegutflora@reddit

Give no fucks on your own time, not in the workplace where there are children.

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GarblingCumfarts@reddit

You think he was going around flashing people his shit or something?

Calm down.

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vonnegutflora@reddit

That exactly the accusation that Jonathan Brandis made dude, but no one listed.

Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to defend someone who is total cool with putting himself in a manner of dress that has the potential to expose his cock and balls to children (at worst) or co-workers (at best), GarblingCumfarts.

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bedheaderbug@reddit

Ew

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Old-Package-4792@reddit

No respect!

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DEIreboot@reddit

Positivity perfect pass play Penny Pester!

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ragonastik39@reddit

Bummer.

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No_Flamingo9331@reddit

I remember so clearly when his photo came up in the “who died this year” at some awards show - my jaw must have hit the floor. God I loved him. Made me so sad that he must have been in such pain.

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Joecamoe@reddit

His ace dead

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nanneryeeter@reddit

I didn't even know he was sick.

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Sevenswansaswimming8@reddit

I freaking was on love with him. I remember crying when he passed away. I used to write fanatics about seaquest.

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CatManDo206@reddit

Can I ask how did he die?

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redlikedirt@reddit

He hanged himself outside his apartment in LA

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CatManDo206@reddit

Yikes didn't know that I remember him as a kid in these movies

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nuskit@reddit

My weird flex? He was my first kiss. It was during the filming of Seaquest. I was living overseas when he passed, and was pretty sad. I'm glad he's in a better place now. At least I hope it's better than where he was before.

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NikiTeslasPigeonWife@reddit

His story is so sad. He was a great actor with a lot of potential. Not only was he beautiful, his soul was, too. 😔

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Rivas-al-Yehuda@reddit

I just rewatched Sidekicks a couple days ago!

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Mysterious_Fennel459@reddit

I thought that was Rider Strong.

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Sad_Palpitation6844@reddit

Hard loss

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dlgirl81@reddit

💔

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punky100@reddit

I just started watching Sea Quest DSV and every time I see him it's a huge hit of nostalgia.

Happy birthday to him

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Johnykbr@reddit

As I understand it, he had a decent role in Hart's War that he was hoping would revitalize his career after he spoke up on the casting couch nature of Hollywood then he found out at the premiere that his role had been completely cut so that you just see his face for a split second.

I've hated that movie ever since.

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bascule@reddit

TIL: Jonathan Brandis has the exact same birthday as Glenn Howerton

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aubreypizza@reddit

😭

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CicaCariad@reddit

It and Never ending Story 2 for me 💔

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EastCoastDizzle@reddit

I was a little young for him but remember him being all over Bop and Big Bopper magazines. Was sad to find out he passed. Ladybugs is a classic in my eyes.

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osddelerious@reddit

He’s dead? He was great on the Star Trek submarine show

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TheIdeaArchitect@reddit

Where do I know him from??

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Imaginary-Desk1408@reddit

Rest in peace. Junior high school me covered every available spot of my bedroom walls with posters of him. Even had a giant poster on my ceiling above my bed. I adored him. I wish he knew how special he was to so many of us.

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No_Trainer_1258@reddit

So he was 16 when in Ladybugs...

I wondered if Robby from Cobra Kai is related?

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chypie2@reddit

we would've been married for like 30 years by now ugh

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Shoulda_Ben_Aborted@reddit

The wedding would still be talked about to this day

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JanieJane96@reddit

I had a big crush on him in high school, so my best friend got me a calender of him for Christmas. I had it hanging in my bedroom. When my mom saw it, she says, "What's that?" And I said, "It's my sexy man calendar!" LOL ❤️ RIP Jonathan ❤️

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neonbrownkoopashell@reddit

He was from my neighbor town, I had no idea. Lived him in IT, NES2 and Ladybugs

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Allrojin@reddit

I think about him all the time, it's so sad.

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whereisbeezy@reddit

I think about him sometimes. He deserved better.

SeaQuest 🤎

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Outside-Writing-8602@reddit

Wow I always thought he was my age but he’s like 9 years older that a wow for me but sooo sad he’s no longer with us

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

I always admired him as a talented young actor. So tragic that he was gone at such a young age.

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goodhumorman85@reddit

I just rewatched Sidekicks. Y’all it totally holds up! JB was a tremendous talent.

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Defiant-Difference17@reddit

Had a subscription to Bop And Jonathan covered my walls. RIP

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ObieUno@reddit

He’s dead? Wow, TIL

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Pale_Row1166@reddit

It’s so wild how many of our teen and tween heartthrobs died in their 20s. I feel like this is not happening with Gen Z actors in their 20s. Hopefully whatever bad shit happened to all these guys is no longer as prevalent in the industry.

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absentlyric@reddit

Weirdly enough, the majority of Gen Z suicides just so happen to be a lot of younger pornstars for some reason.

Makes me think the same exact things that happened to them were happening to actors back in the day.

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Pale_Row1166@reddit

Terrible, I hope not

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raven00x@reddit

Harvey Weinstein wants you to forget what he did.

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BK_0000@reddit

He killed himself back in 2003.

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Fine_Violinist5802@reddit

TIL. Another 27 club member 😔

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basylica@reddit

Comitted suicide - sad day

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karebearjedi@reddit

And now I'm crying.

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Unlucky_Reception_30@reddit

Wait, who is this guy? I thought this was Shawn from Boy Meets World

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angnicolemk@reddit

Who else wrote their name with the last name Brandis over and over again on their school notebooks? 💔

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crapatthethriftstore@reddit

RIP to my number one teen crush

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Next-War6365@reddit

Poor guy. Sad we didn't know about mental health back then like we do now

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CharlieEvans81@reddit

My first celebrity crush! Had the honor of meeting him when I was 12. Super kind and a real sweetheart.

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PoozersPop1971@reddit

Today I learned Jonathan Brandis passed away.

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DrewDAMNIT@reddit

"There's no fate but what we make."

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Own-Economy6208@reddit

I met him at the Philadelphia Car Show in like 1993? I remember I was wearing my hornets starter jacket and I came with my “boys” scrapbook and he was so friendly. He turned to the page for Matthew Lawrence and he said “just don’t let him take my place, okay?” in the most whimsical voice, playful but with a deep sadness to it. I can still hear it. Ugh I loved him so much.

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Res_Novae17@reddit

I have this random early childhood memory of telling one of the girls in my church "Put your tongue back in your mouth" when he showed up on screen in SeaQuest.

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PotentialPlum4945@reddit

He was in Puerto Vallarta Squeeze with Scott Glenn and Harvey Keitel. Keitel would later say that Brandis could really act.

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Sufficient_Focus4174@reddit

Likely would’ve had an amazing life as well. People have to stop using permanent solutions for temporary problems. Such a sad waste.

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ImprovementThat2403@reddit

Poor fella likely had bipolar disorder according to his father, untreated of course.

I don't know who neds to hear this, but if you're feeling down and like you want to take your own life, please don't and talk to someone about it.

I lost my little brother to suicide in 2021, if only I'd known how he was feeling I believe I could have helped him. Please don't suffer in silence.

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