In Remembrance: Jonathan Brandis

     Jonathan Brandis, who became a teen idol during his two stint on the television series SeaQuest DSV, has died on Wednesday, November 12, 2003, the victim of an apparent suicide. He was 27.

     Born on April 13, 1976 in Danbury, Connecticut, Brandis started his career at age 5, acting in commercials. He landed a recurring role on the soap One Life To Live at age 6. Moving to Los Angeles at 9. He made several guest appearances on television series including L A Law, Who’s The Boss? and Murder, She Wrote.

     He landed his first major film role at age 13 with The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). He also landed lead roles in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Ladybugs (1992) and the Chuck Norris family film Sidekicks (1992) before signing onto the cast of the science-fiction/submarine series SeaQuest DSV in 1993. The show would run for two years and Brandis would pen a second season episode (“The Siamese Dream”). In addition to becoming a teen idol from his exposure on the show, he also won a Young Artists Award in 1993 for Best Youth Actor in a Leading Role in a Television Series.

     More recently Brandis has appeared in Ang Lee’s western Ride With The Devil (1999), the comedy Outside Providence (1991) and the World War II prisoner of war drama Hart’s War (2002).