Danny Pintauro Makes Acting Comeback After Being Outed In 1997
It has been 30 years since Who’s The Boss? star Danny Pintauro graced our screens. In 1997, under the concern of being outed by The National Enquirer, Pintauro came out as gay and has been absent from the industry since. In a new Lifetime Christmas film called A Country Christmas Harmony, Pintauro will make his return to acting, reports Instinct.
WELCOME BACK DANNY!
Pintauro played Jonathon Bower in Who’s The Boss? as a child before he took a 30 year hiatus from Hollywood amid his coming out scandal. In an interview with People, Pintauro describes his departure from acting and the difficult years that followed.
Even during the later years of Who’s The Boss?, Pintauro says producers knew he was gay and didn’t provide him any significant romantic storylines which made him feel conflicted about his career. “[Producers] didn’t really know what to do with me,” he says. “They didn’t feel like my character dating a girl was believable… They don’t want me to be here.”
Following the close of the series, Pintauro felt he may not be able to carve out a successful career in acting. “Maybe I was a child actor, and that’s all I was supposed to be,” he says. Things took darker turns for the actor when The National Enquirer forced him out of the closet and he fell on harder times. He turned to drugs and was hanging around a “bad crowd” when he contracted HIV.
Flashing forward, the former child star is 46-years-old, happily married to husband Wil Tabares and is excited to return to acting. Pintauro was inspired after watching Star Trek: Discovery which featured Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz as a married couple. “It made me want to participate,” he says. “Something just clicked. I finally felt ready.”
