Biography
Date of Birth
13 December 1976, Danbury, Connecticut, USA
Birth Name
Jonathan Gregory Brandis
Nickname
The J-Man
Jon
Height
5' 9½" (1.77 m)
Death
December 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA, suicide
Mini Biography
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.
Trivia
He co-wrote the SeaQuest 2032 (1993) episode SeaQuest 2032: The Siamese Dream (1995).
He performed in more than 85 commercials.
He claimed that his dad was one of the main inspirations in his life, having taught him about the "business from an early age".
Attended the Valley Professional School, a special actors school, and graduated in 1993 after doubling his high school classes.
Dated Monica Keena. [2000]
Auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). He lost out to Hayden Christensen.
An avid Pez collector.
At the 15th Annual Youth in Film Awards, he won Best Youth Actor in a Leading Role in a Television Series for SeaQuest 2032 (1993).
Coincidentally, his date to the high school prom was Clueless (1995) star Brittany Murphy, another actress who died at a young age. Jonathan died in 2003 at age 27, and Brittany died in 2009 at age 32 from pneumonia.
After his death dozens upon dozens of Internet communities and memorial websites were devoted to him.
The Slainesville Boys (2004), completed in 2003, would have been his directorial debut.
He was friends with childhood neighbor, actress Juliette Clarke.
Was considered for Saved by the Bell (1989).
An action figure was created based on his character, Lucas Wolenczak, from SeaQuest 2032 (1993).
In the start of his teenage-life, he was considered a bit short. This phenomenon was in fact due to that he was actually also growing as an adult. During filming Sidekicks (1992) he had the same height as Mako, (5' 4"). He then seriously grew in his late teenage years. In the last season of SeaQuest 2032 (1993) when he was about 19 years old, he reached the height 5'9".
As a teenager, in hopes of preparing for a directing career as well as an acting career, he filmed movies starring his friends using a home video camera.
Was set to direct an episode of SeaQuest 2032 (1993), but the show was canceled before he had the chance to do so.
Considered Roy Scheider to be the person of the biggest influence on him as an actor.
He was the only actor to appear in all 57 episodes of SeaQuest 2032 (1993).
His remains were cremated and his ashes are in the possession of his family.
Was best friends with Jason Marsden.
Was in a relationship with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)'s actress Tatyana Ali for 3 years.
His father has English, and some German and Scottish, ancestry. His mother is of half Irish and half Italian descent. The surname Brandis traces back to Jonathan's paternal great-great-great-grandfather, Henry William Brandis, who was born in Prussia.
Was considered for the role of Andy Barclay in Child's Play 3 (1991).
He made his mother his manager.
On November 11, 2003, Brandis was found hanged 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.
Jonathan was close to Soleil Moon Frye, the star of Punky Brewster. From 1989 to the mid 1990s, Soleil kept a video diary of her life with her fellow teen stars in Hollywood and this was compiled into the film Kid 90 in 2021. Jonathan is caught on her videos a number of times, as are a few of his phone messages to Soleil. Understandably, she was greatly affected when he took his own life in 2003.
Trademarks:
Bright blue eyes
Mischievous smile
Often played troubled boys
Quotes
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.
