After starring as the barbarian Atreyu in
The Neverending Story (1984)
, Noah Hathaway got the full teen idol treatment. His cut-off t-shirt and skin-tight white shorts became a common sight in the teen magazines, and every time he went to the gym, a photographer was there to show the world his biceps and abs.
He couldn't compete with super-hunks like
Robby Benson and
Scott Baio, but he was cute enough to inspire many romantic fantasies among kids of the era.
His roles were rather scarce, but memorable. In
Troll (1986), he plays Harry Potter (
not that Harry Potter), a teenager who displays a muscular chest and has no interest in girls. Instead, he must save his sister. No wonder gay boys found a kindred spirit in him, and speculated that he might be gay in real life.
Unfortunately, his response to the speculation was not always gracious; he tended to become livid with rage and shout his denials.
In 1986 Noah retired from acting. He studied dance and martial arts, competed in the sport of motorcycle racing, and became a tattoo artist. Recently he has starred in some independent films, like
River Beauty(2023), with fellow ex-child star Butch Patrick. I haven't found any evidence that his attitude toward gay people has mellowed, but maybe it has.
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this boy REALLY did it for me when i was a little gay 13yo/14yo. i actually don't remember seeing much about him in the american "teen" magazines until after 'troll' came out in 1986 (i know he was popular in germany before that, but not so much in the u.s. until after he cut his hair and "developed"). i'm not sure i believe the story about him becoming "livid with rage" when asked if he was gay since nobody EVER brought up that subject back in the 1980s (unless someone knew him personally, in which case of COURSE no 13yo/14yo would admit to being gay back then, especially if it was true, so that doesn't really mean much).
ReplyDeleteI think the livid with rage was later, when he was an adult. The assumption that juveniles are always heterosexual would have kept anyone from asking when he was a teen.
DeleteThe movie Troll starring Noah I found boring and a waste of time. Noah had the lead roll but it seemed to focus on everyone else. The redeeming feature were the shirtless scenes of Noah Hathaway.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comment concerning the movie Troll starring Noah Hathaway. The shirtless scenes were nice but other than that it was a disappointing film.
ReplyDeleteYeah Troll was a disappointment a letdown from his roll in never ending story and considering he was Americas the first Harry Potter compared to the British version that became famous .
ReplyDeleteHow could you forget that he was Boxy on the 70s Battlestar Galactica?
ReplyDeleteI never saw it. Was his character muscular or gay-coded? Those are the only reasons I mention someone's work. Wait, if that was the 1970s, Hathaway would have been a little kid. Of course he wouldn't be of gay interest.
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