Born in September 1981, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (JTT) became a star at age 11 through
Home Improvement (1991-1998), playing Randy, the middle son of macho tool-show host Tim Allen. He was passive and somewhat feminine, gay-coded yet indefatigably girl-crazy from the start, and careful to rebel against any hint that he might be gay.
In “Groin Pull” (October 1992), Randy is cast as Peter Pan in the school play. First he is horrified because he must “prance” rather than fly: as his father states, “Men don’t prance. We walk, we run, we skip if no one’s looking. . .but we never prance!” Then he discovers that Peter Pan is generally played by a woman, and almost drops out of the play, before Dad confinces him that he can re-create the role as heterosexual, “a man’s man. . .a man with hair on his chest.” And it works: Randy comes home after the performance and exclaims triumphantly, “I saw Jennifer looking at me!"
The pubescent Jonathan Taylor Thomas soon began to dominate the teen magazines. There are literally thousands of pin-ups and centerfolds, far overwhelming those featuring the more muscular
Zachery Ty Bryan, who played his older brother, or
Taran Noah Smith, who played his younger brother, or their various hunky friends (such as
Josh Blake of Alf).
. His character became a teen dream operator, intensely attractive to girls -- never to boys -- and intensely heterosexually active and aware.
But Randy was not content to be just another of the girl-crazy hunks who populated 1990s tv. He often supported liberal causes, in opposition to his conservative father, and his episodes often drew the series into serious themes, such as Randy questioning his religion or facing a possible cancer diagnosis. When JTT left the series in 1998, it was explained that Randy had been accepted into a year-long environmental study program in Costa Rica.
In his other projects, JTT more than made up for the "every girl's fantasy" plotlines of his conservative tv series. He enjoyed a buddy-bonding romance with Brad Renfro in
Tom and Huck (1995), and with
Devon Sawa in
Wild America (1997). He played a bisexual hustler in
Speedway Junky (1999), opposite
Jesse Bradford, and a gay teenager in
Common Ground (2000).
2 gay/bi roles in two years! The gay rumors came fast and furious, but JTT, like his character on
Home Improvement, always denied them: he said he didn't mind, but they made his elderly grandmother upset.
He moved into voice work, guest starred on
Smallville, and went to college, graduating from Columbia University in 2010 with a degree in history.
In 2011, tv personality Lo Bosworth re-ignited the rumors by stating that he was gay on the
Chelsea Lately program.
There's a sausage sighting story on
Tales of West Hollywood
But I forgave him when he starred in a string of homoromantic buddy-bonding movies (most required extensive shirtless and underwear shots and skinny-dipping scenes for teenage fans to gaze at):
