A floppy-haired moppet of a child actor with a chain-smoker's rasp, JTT reached a stratospheric level of teen idoldom usually reserved for pop stars and boy bands. When painstakingly arranged compositions of Bop and Tiger Beat's finest centerfolds papered tween bedrooms across the nation, his face commandeered the lion's share of 90s real estate. (The average makeup, based purely on my own experience, was 80 percent Thomas, 20 percent Devon Sawa and a gratuitous rotating corner for Andrew Keegan or the kid from Free Willy.)

Twenty-five years after Nala and Simba inspired many an unexpected sexual awakening , a new version of The Lion King arrives in theaters this week. Tragically, it does not feature a cameo by the original voice of Young Simba: the man, the myth, the M.I.A. legend that is Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

What Happened to...? is an investigation into the whereabouts of former icons.

The tiny talent landed his first big role in 1989 playing Greg Brady's son on a Brady Bunch spin-off series. Three episodes of In Living Color followed—including one disturbing "Home Alone Again" sketch in which he played Macaulay Culkin fending off an intruding Michael Jackson—before he scored his career-making gig as Randy Taylor on Home Improvement in 1991.

As Thomas began to book modelling gigs and commercials , it became clear to everyone that this was a septuagenarian trapped in the body of a photogenic child star. A devout vegetarian, he was a self-described catch-and-release "fly-fishing nut" who, according to an Angelfire fan page , once caught an 80-pound halibut. He was small for his age and talked like a cool but world-weary philosopher patiently waiting for everyone to get on his level. Which, apparently, was exactly what casting agents adored.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas was born Jonathan Taylor Weiss in the not-so-little town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1981, and raised in Sacramento, California. After his parents split, he moved with his brother Joel and mom/manager to Los Angeles, where he finally broke into Hollywood at the ripe age of eight and adopted his brother's middle name as his new last name.

Now 37, he hasn't walked a red carpet in 15 years, and has made only a few on-screen appearances. He didn't run from a massive scandal or have a public breakdown, so why did the world's foremost teen idol disappear?

And then–in his late teens, right around the time of Y2K—he quit Home Improvement, did a couple of indie films, and vanished completely.

In retrospect, the writing was on the wall from Day One. He loved acting, but he hated the magazine covers. Hated the attention on his personal life. And he definitely hated being called JTT.

"How serious do you take this stuff? I mean, you should be focused on doing a good job, but... every job has an end," Thomas told the outlet when he was just 14. "I think most [fallen child stars] weren’t prepared for the end. I mean, it’s not the end of your life! You can’t base your life around one thing.”

But Premiere magazine noted that while Hollywood wanted Thomas to be "the next Macaulay Culkin," he'd prefer to join the DGA and be "the next Ron Howard."

In addition to charming the nation as Tim Allen's wise-cracking middle son, he was also churning out family-friendly films on the side: The Lion King, 1995's Man of the House and Tom and Huck, The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1996, Wild America (a.k.a. Heartthrobs in Nature) in 1997 and I'll Be Home For Christmas with Jessica Biel and Robbie from 7th Heaven in 1998.

“You have school, friends, learning your lines and making sure your performance is up to speed,” he told People in 1994. “I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve done with full-blown migraine headaches.”

Home Improvement was an instant hit for ABC, and by 12, Thomas was the biggest tween star in America—and already suffering from burnout.

Two years later, Thomas negated the rumors again in a cover story for The Advocate tied to his roles as a persecuted gay teen in Showtime's Common Ground and a bisexual hustler in indie flick Speedway Junky.

"Pretty much in Hollywood you're not anyone until it's rumored that you're gay, so I wasn't that upset about it," a 17-year-old Thomas said when Jay Leno asked if the speculation drove him "nuts" in 1998. "Not that there's anything wrong with it, but they're rumors and you should always be kind of careful with that internet stuff."

At a time when straightness was an assumed trait of the Teen Beat set, Thomas was never in a public relationship (though he reportedly dated Dr. Quinn's Jessica Bowman) and deftly dodged any questions about his dating life. He also faced unfettered media probing into his sexuality that would be unheard of for a celebrity, let alone teen star, today.

In fact, looking back at old clips of him being alternately talked down to or fawned over by talk show hosts is painful. Somehow, Thomas spent years graciously answering a stream of inane questions like, "When's the last time Tim Allen took you out for lunch?" ( David Letterman ) and "Isn't Jonathan's hair the most beautiful color you've ever seen?" ( Kathie Lee Gifford ).

"I'm over that. I've always been over that," he politely told Conan O'Brien of his three-initial moniker in 1998.

Those slightly edgier parts were the extent of his rebellion against his squeaky clean image. He never emancipated himself from his parents or went on an underage bender at the Viper Room. He even reportedly turned down Jason Biggs' part in American Pie.

At the time, he said he didn't appear on the May 1999 finale because he was "back east" looking at prospective colleges and "the whole timing thing didn't work out." But reports swirled of an outraged Tim Allen and a disappointed cast.

Two years after his Emmy-deserving cancer scare episode, he chose to leave the sitcom at the start of its eighth and final season. As Randy Taylor jetted off to Costa Rica on an environmental study, Thomas happily returned to his private Los Angeles high school.

''You are a part of their life, and there is a lot that is owed them,'' he told the New York Times of his rabid fandom in 1997. ''But it's difficult because you want to make everyone happy, but if you try to do that, you're setting yourself up for failure.''

Instead, Thomas represented a wholesome, parent-approved version of the 90s and, by all accounts, that's who he was: a well-spoken introvert ( People once labeled him a "Smart Throb" ) who didn't like the Hollywood scene and struggled with the implications of his fame. For a solid decade, he couldn't go anywhere without an army of teen girls hanging on his oversized sweater du jour. They found him on the backwoods Canada set of Wild America and mid-candle lighting inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

“He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films. Did he want to do films? Did he want to go to school?" Allen told TV Guide. "...I mentioned [publicly] that I was confused. I don’t think he liked that.”

Richard Karn, who played Al Borland, expressed concern over Thomas' autonomy in the decision.

“Jonathan’s life at that point wasn’t necessarily all his own life," Karn said in 2016. "His mom was also deciding what he should or shouldn’t do. That comes down to a particular parental guidance idea that she had. I think Jonathan really would have rather done the episode.”

Mother knows best?

Thomas and his mother, Claudine Gonsalves, were undoubtedly close. Nearly every talk show appearance of his included an anecdote involving her, she answered his fan mail, and filmmakers often recalled her constant presence on set. Still, the extent of her control over her son is unclear.