Tina Yothers

Tina Yothers is a former child star who acted on the hit 1980s TV show Family Ties where she played Jennifer Keaton, the youngest daughter in the Keaton family. Here are some pictures of Yothers from her early days on the show:

Yothers was the younger sister on Family Ties of the then sex symbol Justine Bateman. Yothers was often referred to as the "homely" daughter on the show, and was not known for her looks. The producers had her grow her hair long and curly to keep up with the late-1980s style in an effort to draw in male viewers as shown below:

Unfortunately, Yother's new hairstyle never did win over young male viewers and a running joke was created among Family Ties fans that Yothers was not the most attractive girl, as depicted in this "Pathetic Geek Stories" cartoon that was originally posted over at The Onion:

Family Ties went off the air in 1989 when Yothers was 16 years old. When the show ended, Yothers abandoned her blonde hair color and has worn it black ever since then. After Family Ties' cancellation, Yothers struggled to find acting work. She formed the grunge band Jaded with her brother Cory in 1996 and released the album Confessions in 2000. Unfortunately, the album was not commercially successful and the band broke up a short time later.

After a nine year absence from acting, Tina was given the lead role in Lovelace the Musical, a 2004 stage show based on the life of former pornographic movie star Linda Lovelace. Yothers has also gained a substantial amount of weight in recent years and was cast in the fourth season of Celebrity Fit Club. When I saw her on the saw I was in absolute shock because she appeared to have gained 75-100 lbs since the late 1980s. In her defense she had apparently just had a child, but that doesn't account for such a large weight gain. When she started on the show she weighed in at over 200 lbs.

Yothers actually performed well on Celebrity Fit Club and managed to drop 42 lbs during the show. However, despite her impressive weight loss, there should no doubt that Tina Yothers is one washed-up celebrity!


*** Update - April 10, 2008 ***

Tina Yothers is appearing on Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp, and she does seem like a decent person. Recaps of the episodes from Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp can be found here.

Brian Bonsall

Brian Bonsall is a former child star born in 1981 and best known for his roles as "Andy Keaton" on the mid-1980s TV show Family Ties and as “Preston Waters” in the 1994 Disney movie Blank Check. I’ve never seen Blank Check, but I looked it up and discovered that it actually performed fairly well, taking in $30 million in theatre ticket sales. What I remember Bonsall from was his role on Family Ties:

Family Ties was originally on the air from 1982-1989. It was a big hit up through the mid-1980s until its viewership started to fall off near the late 1980s as the show lost its edge. In an effort to shake things up, the producers added Bonsall to play Andy, the child in the Keaton family. As I recall, Andy was born in one episode in 1987 and then magically morphed into a 5-year-old during the subsequent episode. Unfortunately, Andy was an annoying little brat and his addition basically killed Family Ties, leading it to its cancellation in 1989.

Bonsall later achieved success with Blank Check and had bit roles in other TV shows and movies up until 1994 at which point he and his parents moved away from the Los Angeles area and his acting career ended. Bonsall has recently attempted to break back into the entertainment industry, this time as a musician. Bonsall joined a band called Late Bloomers in 1998 and is currently in a punk band called Thruster. There is a MySpace page for Thruster and as far as I can tell, the band has adopted a gay theme, as shown in the pictures below (Bonsall is the guy in the middle):

Bonsall has also gotten a several piercing and tattoos in an apparent effort to achieve a “punk look.” There are rumors of some turmoil in Bonsall’s life – according to the Internet Movie Database message board threads, Bonsall is addicted to crack cocaine. Bonsall was also arrested for drunk driving in 2004. All of this makes Brian Bonsall one washed-up celebrity!


UPDATE - April 1, 2007
Bonsall was arrested on March 28, 2007 on charges of assaulting his girlfriend. According to authorities, his girlfriend told police he poured an alcoholic drink on her face while she slept, put her in a choke hold and threw her onto a bed when she tried to leave. Bonsall told investigators he pushed the woman down in self-defense after she cut his arm and face with a steak knife, but she denied that, police said.

I also discovered a very unusual Brian Bonsall MySpace page that refers to Bonsall as "The Bonz." I initally thought that this must be a fake or parody MySpace page because it seems pretty odd and the login name is surprisingly "imthegayestmale," but as far as I can tell it is legit.

UPDATE - April 3, 2007
TMZ.com posted the 911 call from Bonsall's girlfriend.

UPDATE - September 1, 2007
According to TMZ.com, Brian Bonsall was sentenced to two years of probation on August 31, 2007 for his role in the alleged March 2007 assualt on his girlfriend. Bonsall has gone through a 30-day rehab program and claims to have been sober for five months. He and his girlfriend are back together and are currently in couples counseling.

UPDATE - December 8, 2009
Brian Bonsall was arrested on Monday, December 7, 2009 for an incident that supposedly took place during the previous Saturday. Bonsall is accused of hitting his best friend in the face with a broken stool. Bonsall claims that he had been drinking and didn't remember what happened. Bonsall has been charged with third-degree assault in connection with the Saturday incident and has also been charged for previously failing to appear in court in connection with his 2007 assault on his girlfriend as discussed above. Bonsall's newest mugshot is shown below.

Bonsall may not be the most washed-up former child star of his era (Dustin Diamond has laid claim to that title), but he may be the most "white trash" former child star of the past 25 years or so. I noticed that he has gotten a huge new tattoo on his neck since the last time he had a mugshot taken in 2007. He also looks like he could pass for someone in his late 30s. It's hard to believe that people used to think he was a cute kid!

Here are some additional photos of Bonsall that were linked in the comments below. Bonsall apparently enjoys wearing makeup/war paint on his face for some unknown reason. Also, it appears as though Bonsall may have a curly mullet in the photo on the right-hand side below.

Scott Schwartz

Scott Schwartz is a former child star best known for his role as "Flick" in the 1983 sleeper hit movie A Christmas Story. Most people might not remember the name "Scott Schwartz," but they probably remember his character from the movie. Flick was the character that licked a frozen flagpole on a dare and his tongue froze to the flagpole. If you've seen the movie, I'm sure you remember that scene, as it is probably the most memorable one in the movie.






Like many former child stars, puberty was very harsh on Schwartz and basically killed his career. Schwartz stopped growing shortly after he reached 5 feet in height (according to his MySpace page he is 5"2' tall). Desperate to make a buck in the entertainment world Schwartz turned to porn when no regular acting roles were available. He appeared in movies such as Beauty and the Beast 2 (1990), Scotty's X-rated Adventure (1996), New Wave Hookers 5 (1997), The Wrong Snatch (1997) and Dirty Bob's Xcellent Adventures 35 & 36 (both 1997). He even won an AVN Award (the apparent porn equivalent to an Oscar) in 1997 for "Best Non-Sexual Performance" in Silver Screen Confidential (1996).
 

In 2000, he left the adult film industry entirely in an attempt to revive his career in mainstream movies, appearing in bit roles in crappy low-budget movies such as Skin Walker (2004) and Unseen Evil 2 (2004). He has also run a sports and movie memorabilia collectibles store with his father in Westlake Village, California since 1987.

Schwartz apparently likes to pretend that he is friends with sports celebrities. He posted pictures of himself with Barry Bonds and Hulk Hogan on his MySpace page. The caption for the Hogan picture indicates that Hogan is an "old friend." This, of course, begs the question - why is the Hulkster looking at Schwartz as though Schwartz is some kind of weirdo if Hogan really is an "old friend?"

At this point Schwartz's acting career is washed-up beyond all repair. He is a chubby and unattractive little shrimp and is becoming more and more obese every day, as one can clearly see in the pictures below. All of this makes Scott Schwartz one washed up celebrity!



*** Update - February 16, 2010 ***

I just discovered that Scott Schwartz was more involved in the porn business than I had initially realized. Not only did Schwartz act in porno movies, he was also an agent for porn stars. He wrote a letter to a porn website to discuss his dealing with a porn star named Anastasia Blue, who was a former client and had committed suicide years after he last represented her.