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Sep 18, 2017

Jonathan Brandis

Probably the most famous of the Neverending Story boys was Jonathan Brandis, who played Bastian in #2.  Born in 1976, Brandis began acting during the 1980s, with small parts in tv series like Webster and Good Morning, Miss Bliss (the original title of the blockbuster teencom, Saved by the Bell). 

Neverending Story II (1990) did not result in teen magazine adulation, and Brandis continued playing small parts in big movies or big parts in small movies, like the gay-subtext heavy Sidekicks (1992).  

Then he hit it big in the science fiction series Seaquest: DSV (1993-1996) about a submarine crew in the near future traveling through the ocean to help colonists, discover the lost Library of Alexandria, face deep-sea bogies, and take their shirts off.



Brandis played Lucas Wolenczak, a teenage computer genius, to draw in the "teenage girl" demographic, as the heterosexist Wikipedia article puts it -- but gay boys found him dreamy, too.  The program's heterosexism made it difficult to watch, but there was some comfort in the rumors that Brandis was gay in real life.    

After Seaquest, Brandis acted sporadically, but never found the fame he expected.  In 2003 he apparently committed suicide by hanging himself, although some tabloids claimed that it was an accidental death during autoerotic asphyxiation (most people don't get naked to commit suicide).

There's a Jonathan Brandis hookup story on Tales of West Hollywood

8 comments:

  1. -->> I liked NES II & DSV very much. Brandis is still sorely missed.

    ~ t

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  2. He was scheduled to be in a big Hollywood film, but his role was cut down to a few minutes. This is often the stated reason he was suicidal. Apparently, people knew that he was depressed. I never saw anything to suggest that it was sex games gone wrong.

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  3. WAS he found naked? i don't remember that part

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  4. Filmography for Teen Idols 4 You site list quite a number of films for Jonathan but few are shown on your blog. Do you have any suggestions of anything worth viewing?

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    Replies
    1. I don't remember seeing him in anything but "Sidekicks"

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  5. Jonathan was clothed when his friends discovered him in the hallway outside his apartment. It's a shame nobody helped him when he was feeling so depressed and given up.

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  6. If he was found naked, and the cause of death is publicly listed as "died after sustaining injuries from an attempted suicide via hanging", then he probably was engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation. You don't get naked to commit suicide, and "injuries from an attempted suicide" is a bizarre phrasing. There's no shame in what he was doing, people can get off any way they want. If that's what happened though, it should be shared not hidden. As a warning to the danger of that practice. RIP Brandon.

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