He came close to playing Anakin Skywalker in Ep II. Likely would have been better than that mope Christensen.
This has made me very sad. I’m another one who had a crush on this guy when I was younger…he was only a couple of months older than me.
I wonder why this hasn’t been picked up by the major news agencies? Was he just not a big enough star?
In any case, whenever I read Stephen King’s IT, the character of young Bill will always have Jonathan Brandis’ face for me.
Well, I’ve been looking and the only other things I found were here and here. A Google news search turned up nada.
I guess that works out to be the “angle”, Arden Ranger - Young actor dead a week before Tabloid Press catches on.
Tabloid Press ponders on reasons, finds no corroborating sources so makes some up to drive sales.
Tabloid Press moves on…
Whoa. He was like the cutest guy ever. I didn’t see this one coming.
According to this artile, it may have been a suicide. What a shame.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-xray20.html
Might’ve kept him alive, too.
There’s a bit longer obit of him up now:
http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|84772|1|,00.html
I’ve read rumors at a few different places (mostly message boards, so take it for what it’s worth) that he might have been taking Accutane, which has possible side effects of “suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, suicide, etc.”
I just…don’t understand.
What is Accutane for?
Acne, if you can believe that. “Severe recalcitrant nodular acne.”
Accutane is for Acne, but the suicide side effects i don’t believe (i took it myself). Most of the prescriptees are teenagers anyway, and some of them get depressed and kill themselves. Accutane has probably saved more lives, as the resulting better appearance has assuradly gotten many kids out of funks. All i got was dry skin, dryer lips, and nosebleeds (complete with dried bloody crud in my nose…fun!)
WHAAA-AAAT??? Holy crap!
Given the right material, that guy was actually really, really good. Unfortunately, he didn’t often get the greatest projects come his way. Nonetheless, there was potential and he could have developed into good leading-man material.
Damn.
A bit more info here for anyone who wants it.
I saw where this hit MSN tonight, and my heart dropped…I was absolutely in love with him in the 6th grade.
Tragic…
Am I the only person who has never heard of him?
One of these articles said he died November 12th! Why was this kept under wraps for so long?
I don’t know what’s going on with the news. They just showed it under the entertainment heading of cnn.com yesterday, but it was quickly pushed back for movie reviews.
Wasn’t he also in The Never Ending Story?
He was THE teen hearthrob for a while, on the cover of every teenybopper mag so more likely people who were 13 yr old girls ten yrs ago are more familiar. I remember slowly but surely his image being replaced by the squinty kid from Home Improvement until there was barely a whisper about Jon. I stopped buying the mags then and moved on to musicians like Michael Stipe and Thom Yorke.
I dunno why it was kept so quiet. It looks like his family didn’t release a statement and he wasn’t exactly an A list-er. Still I too was shocked at the lack of press.
Yes. Apparently, I was a little too old to see him in Tiger Beat and such. But I took some nieces and nephews to see NeverEnding Story when it first came out, and remember thinking he was the prettiest boy I had ever seen! When he was in Stephen King’s It a few years later, I thought the casting was brilliant!
How sad to hear of such tragedy:(