Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Jonathan Brandis Dead at 27

Jonathan Brandis, who played Lucas Wolenczak in SeaQuest DSV, was found dead in his home today. The L.A. County Coroner's office has yet to release details of his death.

Most recently Jonathan was in the Bruce Willis movie Hart's War and earlier this year was in The Year That Trembled.

R.I.P.

I loved SeaQuest this is very sad news!!!!

this is very sad !!!

any further news reports ???

Matthew.

The latest I heard was that he had committed suicide by hanging himself, but that there was no suicide note. Of course, this hasn't been confirmed by any reliable news source that I'm aware of, so I don't know how true it is.

The latest from AMC states Jonathan died last Wednesday, the 12th, of suicide. Friends discovered him at his home where he had hung himself.

Preliminary toxilogical reports revealed that there were no trace of drugs of any kind found in Jonathon’s body.

This just makes it even more sad.

I can't believe how slowly this story is coming about. People have been talking about it on the interenet all week, and the web news sites are only now reporting it.

From E!Online:

Actor Jonathan Brandis, who began his television and film career as a child, died November 12, the victim of an apparent suicide. He was 27.

Brandis was best known for his portrayal of crewmember Lucas Wolenczek on two seasons of Steven Spielberg's underwater sci-fi series, SeaQuest DSV, for which he won a 1993 Young Artists Award, catapulting him to teen idol status.

The actor got his start at age six, when he landed a recurring role on the soap One Life to Live and appeared in numerous commercials. He moved to Los Angeles with his family at age nine, and made guest appearances on shows such as Murder She Wrote and Who's the Boss?

Brandis earned his first starring film role in 1990's The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter. He went on to appear in 1992's Ladybugs with Rodney Dangerfield and more recently in the Farrelly Brother's Outside Providence in 1999.

Police said a friend of Brandis' called 911 from his apartment just before midnight on November 11 to report that the actor had attempted suicide by hanging. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital but he died the next day.

Paul Peterson, president of A Minor Consideration, an organization that deals with issues affecting child actors, released a statement expressing his sorrow over Brandis' death.

"We are left with a sense of helplessness and perhaps even anger that this thoroughly unexpected death occurred when we have spent years developing resources to deal with any and all crisis situations," Peterson's statement read. "This one hurts. What more can we say?"

The Los Angeles coroner's office performed an autopsy, but won't announce the cause of death until Brandis' blood and toxicology results are returned, which could take up to six weeks. However, according to Peterson, initial reports showed no sign of drugs in Brandis' system.

"Speculations as to the underlying cause of this tragedy are exactly that: speculations. It serves no purpose to leap to conclusions for none of us will really know what led Jonathan to his decision to take his life," Peterson stated.

Brandis reportedly left no suicide note. He was an only child, who is survived by his parents, Greg and Mary Brandis.

The story finally broke on CNN and MSN as well. I wonder why it took so long for the 'real' media to report the story.

They only care about Michael Jackson.

The media is like the cool clique in high school - it only happens if they say it happens. The whole Enron scandal was at least six months old and had been all over every business magazine to the point that it was old news when suddenly the media discovered that Enron had contributed to George W. Bush's campaign, then the doo-doo hit the fan. I'm pretty sure that they also contributed to the democrats, too, but no one ever talks about that. I've been privy to things that I thought my own local media would cover, but they just didn't care. The media doesn't report everything that happens, just the stuff that they care about.

Anyway, it's too bad about Jonathan Brandis.

It is too bad about Mr. Brandis. And I don't mean any offense to those who liked him as an actor. But he really wasn't that well known and as such his death/suicide (if there was no other suspicious circumstances around his death) probably was not considered news.

Well, I'm sure he wasn't as famous as, say, Leroy from Fame or Stacey Keach's mom

I was just wondering the other day what ever happened to Jonathon Brandis

Really sad news

I actually met the guy who played Leroy once. When I was a kid we were in line for Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. My little brother was wearing a micky mouse ears hat thingy. The guy walked up and started playing with the ears. He was really sweet. It's sad that he died.
It really is a shame Brandis died. I was thinking he might've made a decent Brainiac 5 if they ever did a live action movie.
I actually didn't find out until recently because it wasn't a big story. I was browsing through the IMDB and saw the "date of death" bit.
I personally think the circumstances sound rather suspicious. I would think someone would get rather drunk before hanging himself. I mean, hanging is a very nasty way to go. Slow and very unpleasant. During executions some people were seen to kick and struggle for 15 minutes before passing out. Unless the neck snapped and death was immediate it was a horrific death. I don't know why anyone would choose that way to die. Although I guess they might've thought it was a quick and painless death. Must really suck for his parents.
He's the second SeaQuest actor to die in 2003.

No way!

SeaQuest:DSV is in repeats here in OZ at the moment - I just watched an ep the other day as part of a nostalgia trip... Shame about JB...