“From Stardom to Obscurity: Uncover the 25 Child Actors Who Vanished from the Spotlight!”
Mara Wilson
If the 90s belonged to any child actor, they belonged to Mara Wilson. As well as the all-time literary classic Matilda, Wilson also spent the decade starring in Mrs. Doubfire, Miracle on 34th Street and A Simple Wish. She was hugely successful, performing at the 67th Academy Awards with Tim Curry and Kathy Najimy, winning a ShoWest Star of the Year Award and even appearing in stage productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cinderella.
However, Wilson never really enjoyed film acting, and later said that “doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director’s eyes, you ‘get it right’, does not allow for very much creative freedom.” As an adult, she stepped away from film completely, instead only appearing in niche projects like horror podcast Welcome to Nightvale, in which she voiced the Faceless Old Woman Who Lives in Your Home. She also released an autobiography in 2016, called Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Not all child stars manage to make the transition from adorable kid to gorgeous teen heartthrob, but that’s the trajectory that Jonathan Taylor Thomas had. In the 90s, JTT played Randy Taylor on Tim Allen’s Home Improvement and voiced young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King. His Disney work didn’t end there though, as in the mid-to-late 90s, Thomas also starred in Man of the House, Tom and Huck and I’ll Be Home for Christmas.
Despite endless spreads in teen magazines and legions of adoring fans, Thomas walked away from the entertainment world in 2005 and enrolled in Harvard University. There, he completed a degree in Philosophy and History, before spending a year abroad studying at St. Andrews in Scotland. He only returned to the spotlight in 2013, when he landed a recurring role on the American sitcom Last Man Standing, reunited with his Home Improvement co-star Tim Allen. He hasn’t been active in Hollywood since 2016.
