Created by Gary David Goldberg, the television sitcom Family Ties aired on NBC from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom went on to reflect the social shift in the United States from cultural liberalism to conservatism. The sitcom starred Brian Bonsall, Meredith Baxter, Michael J. Fox, and others.
Family Ties, upon its premiere, received a positive response from the critics and the audience. It holds about a 74% critics score and 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. One Family Ties actor who was praised for his work on the show recently opened up about ‘weird pictures’ he received from a stranger when he was a child.
Family Ties actor Brian Bonsall recalls a disturbing incident involving an inmate
In the second episode of ID’s Hollywood Demons, actor Brian Bonsall, who starred in NBC’s Family Ties as Andrew Keaton, opened up about a chilling yet disturbing incident from the time he was on the show. The actor was cast on the sitcom when he was four years old as the youngest child of Meredith Baxter’s Elyse Donnelly Keaton and Michael Gross’ Steven Keaton. Michael J. Fox also starred on the show.
The actor’s popularity grew, and just like how elder actors receive fan mail, Bonsall did too. He shared during the episode,
When I was a little older, my mom started telling me about one dude specifically who was sending me, I don’t know, but sending me weird pictures. I just remember them being a little off.
The actor clarified that nothing in those pictures was sexual, but he found them weird and disturbing. He remembered that in one of the letters, the 30-year-old guy wrote to him that, according to him, Bonsall was the greatest actor. Bonsall’s mother, Kathleen, also shared in the episode (via EW),
The guy was writing to him from prison.
Bonsall also noted that the guy from prison was writing to him when he was on the show, and his mother didn’t tell him about the letters until he was an adult to understand them. The actor who started working in the entertainment industry at the age of 4 was scared of the attention and the limelight. He shared during the episode,
Family Ties pushed me into the limelight to the point that I couldn’t walk down the street… Getting surrounded by screaming people, I didn’t understand it. I was on the brink of crying, and it scares you too, especially when you’re four.
His mother, Kathleen, echoed the same sentiment by explaining that an older lady came rushing at Bonsall just after a few months of the show being on air. She shared that the lady tried to hug the young child without her permission. Being exposed to fame at a very young age led Bonsall to walk down the dark path of substance abuse and several arrests.
But now the Family Ties actor is sober and plays music in a band, Sunset Silhouette, and credits his wife, Courtney Tuck, for helping him out.
Brian Bonsall shares a spine-chilling experience of his identity being stolen following his stardom with Family Ties
Investigation Discovery’s Hollywood Demons’ second episode, titled Child Stars Gone Violent, goes on to explore Brian Bonsall’s time under the spotlight. The actor who rose to prominence with his work on Family Ties after being exposed to the glitz and glam went down the path of legal issues, substance abuse issues, and more.
Brian Bonsall, who decided to retire from acting and explore music as a career, recalled hitting a new rock bottom when he was informed that a man had stolen his identity. Not only did he steal Bonsall’s identity, but he was also trying to date women and then harming them. He shared in the second episode that he was made aware after a woman told him what was happening. (via AOL)
She said she dated a guy for three months who was nice at first. She had said that he was using my name to coax her into coming over and meeting him. He had a bunch of tattoos in the same place, and she went on to say he turned really abusive. It was the worst thing you want to hear.
The actor recalled that he started to hear more stories, as a friend of his told him that she knew someone who dated the guy, recalling that she was locked in the room and was forced to watch p**n while he did heroin.
Bonsall, worried and scared, went to the police and filed a report, but the cops told him, ‘It is not illegal to tell someone you are someone else to have s*x with them.’
Brian Bonsall noted that the cops did not take him or his claims seriously at the time, maybe because he was drunk at the time. Then he, along with his now wife, involved the FBI in the situation, and that’s when he found out that the guy was r**ing the women he dated. The man was later identified as Nathan Loebe.
Bonsall met him in 2004 in jail when he was in prison for his DUI case, and mentioned that Loebe was connected to over 40 cases and was eventually sentenced to 274 years. The actor, however, admitted that he felt guilty for the women who were duped into going on a date with him, but in reality, it was Loebe.
Hollywood Demons is available to watch on Hulu.
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