What is Jonathan Taylor Thomas' net worth?
Jonathan Taylor Thomas is an American actor, voice actor, former child star and teen idol who has a net worth of $12 million. In the 1990s Jonathan Taylor Thomas was one of the most-famous, and highest-paid teen actors in the world. He became a television superstar thanks to his role on the Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement then landed dozens of additional film and TV roles. Arguably his most significant film role was providing the voice of the young lion cub "Simba" in Disney's The Lion King. He's continued to work sporadically since then as an actor and director but has largely retired from public life.
Early Life
He was born Jonathan Taylor Weiss in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on September 8th, 1981. He would later adopt his older brother Joel's middle name "Thomas" as his last name, to create the now-legendary "Jonathan Taylor Thomas," aka "JTT."
For the first eight or nine years of his life he had a relatively normal upbringing. His entertainment career began in the late 1980s when he started appearing as a model in local print ads in Sacramento, where his family had moved. After a handful of TV commercial gigs, he got a job voicing the character of Spot on the children's entertainment series The Adventures of Spot which ran for three seasons and set him on a course to acting success.
Acting Career
In 1990, Jonathan Taylor Thomas landed his first big acting break, appearing in The Bradys as the son of Greg Brady of the 70s sitcom The Brady Bunch. The Bradys was only on the air for a month.
The following year Thomas appeared on an episode of the FOX sketch comedy series In Living Color, portraying a fictional version of Macaulay Culkin in a sketch that lambasted Michael Jackson:
This appearance is what gave a long-forgotten studio executive the idea to cast JTT as middle child "Randy Taylor" on what became Home Improvement. His brothers on the show were played by Zachery Ty Bryan and Taran Noah Smith. His parents were played by Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson. Jonathan is technically one month older than Zachery Ty Bryan, who played his older brother on the series.
Jonathan would go on to appear in 179 of Home Improvement's 204 episodes over 8 seasons that aired between 1991 and 1998.
In 1994 Jonathan provided the voice of "Simba" in Disney's The Lion King. The Lion King went on to earn $968 million at the global box office. That's the same as around $1.9 billion in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation, and that's enough to make it the highest-grossing animated movie of all time.
Lion King Salary
Jonathan Taylor Thomas' salary for his role in "The Lion King" is not known, but we do have an anecdote that helps give some clues. In the film, Jonathan provided the speaking voice of Simba, but not the singing voice. An actor named Jason Weaver provided the singing voice parts. Years later Jason revealed that he was initially offered $2 million for his part in The Lion King. That's around $3.5 million in today's dollars. Weaver famously TURNED THAT SALARY DOWN in exchange for $100,000 upfront plus a higher percentage of backend royalties. Weaver has confirmed that over the last few decades his royalty checks have significantly out-earned his original $2 million salary offer. Considering just how famous Jonathan Taylor Thomas was in 1994, it's safe to assume he was offered at least as much as Jason Weaver, but as we said, it's not known what his salary actually was or whether he took salary upfront or larger royalties.
Other Work
Other film roles followed, including appearing with Chevy Chase in Man of the House, the Mark Twain adaptation Tom and Huck (for which he earned a salary of $600,000), and providing the voice of Pinocchio in the (mostly) live-action The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1996. That same year he reprised the role of Pinocchio in the video game version of the movie.
During this period Thomas continued to act occasionally in various TV shows, appearing in one episode of Ally McBeal, two episodes of Smallville (one in 2002 and the other in 2004), and three episodes of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Then in 2005 he was seen on an episode of Veronica Mars. He also racked up a few movie credits, including the posthumously produced Ed Wood screenplay I Woke Up Early The Day I Died, the holiday film I'll Be Home for Christmas, and (somewhat outside his usual family wheelhouse) the crime film Speedway Junky. His most recent film credit is from the 2005 Chinese animated film Thru the Moebius Strip, in which he lent his voice to the English language version as Prince Ragis.
After a lengthy break from TV and movies, Thomas reunited with his Home Improvement TV dad Tim Allen on the latter's sitcom Last Man Standing, appearing on four episodes and even directing three. Those episodes are three of his only directorial credits, after a 2006 short film called The Extra, but as you'll see in one of the quotes below Thomas has expressed more of an interest in behind-the-camera work like directing than any return to the spotlight he occupied in his younger days. And he hasn't left show business for good just yet, since despite his lack of screen credits following his Last Man Standing run, he was inducted into the SAG-AFTRA union board in 2017.
In a March 2013 interview, Thomas told People magazine that although he left Hollywood at the height of his acting career, he didn't regret the decision:
"I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break…I never took the fame too seriously…It was a great period in my life, but it doesn't define me. When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers." In another interview, Thomas expressed ambivalence toward the idea of ever making a return to acting: "I think at this point, I'd eventually like to work behind the camera. That's not to say I would never act again, I'm not quite sure to be honest."
College
Thomas had already begun to lose interest in the show business lifestyle by 1998, when he walked away from Home Improvement in order to focus on his academic career. Two years later, he graduated (with honors) Chaminade College Preparatory School, going on to enroll at Harvard University. He spent his third year abroad at St. Andrews University in Scotland, and eventually graduating from the Columbia University School of General Studies in 2010.
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Personal Life
Thomas is the nephew of playwright/actor Jeff Weiss, and has said that he's been a vegetarian for much of his life. He's continuing to keep a low profile, but is a steady subject for various "where are they now?" features in newspapers and magazines. He's even gone against the grain of many former child stars with no public-facing social media accounts, and it isn't even known for sure where he's currently living – except that he seems to have left Hollywood.
Real Estate
In June 2000, Jonathan paid $683,000 for a lagoon-facing home in Westlake Village, California. He still owns this home today despite attempting to sell it from 2015-2016 for around $2 million.
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