Happy Birthday in Heaven, Jonathan Brandis!

Jonathan Brandis would have been 45 today! Ladybugs is by far one of my favorite movies! Jonathan Brandis & Rodney Dangerfield worked so well together! I remember meeting him at an arcade in Vegas & even my dad got excited (because all my sister & I did was watch Ladybugs on repeat). Jonathan was an 80′s/ 90′s heart throb. He was friends with all the cool kids in Hollywood like Soleil Moon Frye & Brian Austin Green. His best friend was Jason Marsden, who played Thackery Binx in “Hocus Pocus.” He dated Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Tatyana Ali for 3 years. He was born in Danbury, Connecticut, to Greg and Mary, who was his manager. Jonathan Brandis began his career at age 5, acting in several television commercials. He also appeared in small parts in several films and TV shows before his first starring role in the 1990 film The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). He starred in popular films such as Ladybugs (1992) and starred as Lucas Wolenczak in Steven Spielberg’s television series SeaQuest 2032 (1993). He doubled up his high school courses so he could finish a year early for his role on SeaQuest. After his career stalled for a bit, he was hoping his role in serious drama film Hart’s War (2002) would relaunch it. However, most of his scenes ended up being cut from the finished film. This caused him to fall into a deep depression in which he would drink heavily and tragically end his own life on November 12th, 2003, become part of the unfortunate infamous Hollywood “27 Club.”

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