Child stardom must suck. You've got to work all the time, you aren't in
control of your own money, and generally you get booted the moment your
voice breaks, or skin gets bad, and/or you begin to look older than your
TV parents. Plus, you are nearly always forgotten (or you are remembered
for all the wrong reasons).
Only rarely do former child stars manage to claw their way back to the top
(think SJP, Neil Patrick Harris, Drew Barrymore, Jason Bateman... actually
that's kind of a lot) but most of the time they completely disappear into
oblivion. We've already talked about child stars with
tragic stories but today we want to focus on those pint
sized celebrities who actually... became nothing.
Grab a seat on the memory train friends, here is Lifelounge's guide to
forgotten child stars.
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Jonathan Taylor Thomas
JTT was the biggest '90s hunk ever! (To primary schoolers, we're not
getting weird here.) From '91 to '98, JTT played Randy Taylor in Home
Improvement and also provided the voice of Simba in
The Lion
King, then he pretty much went AWOL. According to a recent Tweet by
his TV mum Patricia Richardson, now "Jonathan is acting and wants to
direct!" Thanks for the update, Patty!
Mara Wilson
You may not know the name, but you'd definitely know the face. Think the
little cute girl in
Mrs Doubtfire, and the cute little girl in
Miracle on 34th Street and the total badass semi-witch in
Matilda. Apparently the reason Mara disappeared is because she
wanted to – she had no interest in being a celebrity, so she stopped
acting. Seems weirdly logical.
Jodie Sweetin
The forgotten Tanner! Not little enough to be the cutest, not old enough
to be the edgiest, little Stephanie had to hip hop dance her way into
everyone's hearts. Later in life she would become addicted to meth because
she was "bored" and then wrote a book about her experiences called
unSweetined. (That title is a close second to fellow '90s lady
Tori Spelling's book
Stori Telling with Tori Spelling.)
Lacey Chabert
So this is a hard one. Little Lacey was well know as being a TV orphan on
Party of Five until the series ended, and then all of sudden she was all
grown up (but had exactly the same preteen squeaky voice). Lacey made a
comeback of sorts in
Mean Girls in 2003, but than she pretty much
dropped out of the public consciousness again. Boo, you whore!*
*We don't really think she's a whore. If you don't recognise the quote, we
feel bad for you.
David Faustino
David made his TV debut at three months old on the Lily Tomlin Special,
but his first big gig was joining the cast of Married with Children in
1987. What did he do post-acting? He became a rapper! Under the name
D'lil! Here's his song!
(Continued next page)