Jaleel White says Jonathan Brandis’ death after their TV pilot wasn’t picked up made him question acting

On November 26, 2024By Littum

Brandis, 27, died by suicide in 2003.

Jaleel white remembers the moment he learned Jonathan Brandis was dead, and it forced him to face some harsh realities.

The Family matters star wrote in his new book, Growing up Urkelthat he was up late writing one night when he saw that Brandis had died by suicide at the age of 27. The sad news came months after Brandis, White, Frank Langella, Tippi Hedrenand the entire cast of the pilot for a TV drama called 111 Gramercy Park was told it had not been picked up.

Getty(2) Jaleel White talks about his grief after the death of Jonathan Brandi — Getty(2)

Jaleel White talks about his grief after the death of Jonathan Brandi

“I stared at my computer screen with tears rolling down my face. I could only imagine what Jonathan was going through at the time,” White wrote. “Like me, he had dedicated his whole life to achieving what Leonardo DiCaprio and the rest of his peer group had seemingly done so with ease. In my own way, I was the more well-adjusted success story. I grew up in an industry that always told me I couldn’t match Leos or Tobey Maguire‘s level of success, and still I had made a huge living for myself.”

Brandis began appearing in television commercials when he was barely old enough for kindergarten. He then appeared in TV programs such as Who is the boss? and Full Housebefore he participates in Steven Spielberg-produced sci-fi series seaQuest DSV. He also starred in films, including the 1992s Ladybugsbeside Rodney Dangerfield and Jackie Harryand Sidekickswith Chuck Norris.

White said his mother was visiting and she was staying at his guest house.

“She came into my office, saw my tears and immediately sought to comfort me,” White said. “She’s always hated to see show business affect me in the different ways it has privately, so she started sobbing too.”

White told her, “I can’t do this anymore, Mom. I want out. This business is killing people from the inside.”

The actor said he was unable to break into the film as he had been forever labeled by many as Steve Urkel. What saved White, he said, is that he knew from the beginning of his career that he would always be in a secondary role.

“I imagine Jonathan felt he needed that pilot to feed his soul,” White said. “I’ve never known an actor to repeatedly ask me about our pick-up options like he did when we were shooting 111 Gramercy Park. He was as much a veteran as I, our prospects of pickup should have been as clear to him as they were to me. It seemed to me that Jonathan, like myself, had come to a different career path and 111 Gramercy Park would have offered him a fair shot at leading man status. In my case, I would play just another character role, and there would be many more down the road.”

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White and Brandis had met in the 80s when they had starred in another TV pilot: Good morning, Miss Blisswhich had finally become – without them – Saved by the bell.

“Jonathan and I weren’t close at all as kids. But he and I always had a way of crossing paths over and over again,” White recalled. “Our closest overlap so far was a mutual acquaintance, the actress Tatyana Ali. He was Tatyana’s real-life boyfriend when I shot my one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Tatyana was so smitten with Jonathan that when it came time for our on-screen kiss, she turned her head so far towards the camera, hiding the fact that our lips barely touched. Understood, Tatyana. No one misunderstands our professional duty.”

But like 111 Gramercy Park the cast spent nearly three weeks filming in Toronto, going out for dinners and drinks, “a friendship developed” between the twentysomethings.

The night White learned Brandis had died, he wrote, “he wept for what felt like a fallen soldier.”

Then he decided to find new representation and move on.

Growing up Urkel is in bookstores now.