'90s Heartthrobs Who Are Barely Recognizable Today

The 1990s were a great time to grow up if you were interested in men. The internet wasn't really around yet, so the decade's heartthrobs made names for themselves through their work — their movies and television shows but also their appearances in plenty of celebrity gossip magazines. It was a decade full of Teen Beat magazines, teen shows on primetime television, and more hunks than you could possibly cut out of your Cosmopolitan and hang on your bedroom wall.

The decade was defined by celebs like Brad Pitt and Will Smith, both of whom have aged very well, still look exactly the same, and have continued to be at the forefront of pop culture in the decades since they first rose to prominence. Not everyone was so lucky, however. Time comes for us all, and plenty of '90s heartthrobs now look very little like the pretty boys who first caught our eye all those years ago. Many have continued working, finding new ways to use their celebrity to explore new types of roles ... or whatever roles they can still get. Others have dropped out of the public eye almost entirely, working on finding success in their personal lives instead of chasing the limelight that used to shine so brightly on them. Read on for a look back at those starry-eyed years, checking in with these '90s heartthrobs who are barely recognizable today.

You can't talk about 1990s heartthrobs without bringing up Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The "Home Improvement" star was such a legend among '90s kids that even his voice acting was well known; after all, he voiced the younger version of Simba in "The Lion King." In fact, he was a Disney kid in live action movies, too, leading "Tom and Huck," "Man of the House," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas."

These days, Thomas rarely appears in public, and paparazzi snap him as he's out and about only occasionally. He doesn't really look like the blue-eyed, long-haired kid whose photos adorned many a high school locker back in the day; instead, he just looks like a normal guy.

In fact, he hasn't acted at all in a decade. He last appeared on-screen in a few episodes of "Last Man Standing," a sitcom that reunited him with Tim Allen, who played his father on "Home Improvement." That's the last time Thomas did press, too, telling People, "I think at this point, I'd eventually like to work behind the camera." He said he'd consider acting again someday, too, but 10 years on from the last time he showed up on television, that hasn't happened. Still, it's safe to say that there are plenty of fans from back in the day who would welcome him back with open arms. In the meantime, here's what we know about Jonathan Taylor Thomas' private life today.

"Saved by the Bell" initially premiered in 1989, but the vast majority of its run aired in the '90s, launching its cast to teen-heartthrob stardom. The breakout hunk from the cast was Mario Lopez, who played A.C. Slater. He's still a big presence in pop culture, after all, hosting shows like "Extra" and "Access Hollywood," which is why Mario Lopez's net worth is higher than you'd think.

For the most part, though, "Saved by the Bell" centered on Zack Morris, played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar. He was a heartthrob in his own right, a bit of a class clown who sported some goofy, ultra-'90s hairstyles.

Nowadays, you'd be forgiven for never piecing together that the dark-haired, bearded hunk who still stars on shows like "Found," "Pitch," and "Franklin & Bash" once walked the halls of Bayside High and romanced Kelly Kapowski. That's okay with Gosselaar; after all, he too has trouble recalling his '90s heyday. "This, for us, was over 30 years ago," he told People. "It was work, so I don't think most people can remember their workdays."

Fans first fell in love with Devon Sawa when he played the human, living form of "Casper" in the iconic 1995 film. If you were the right age, there are few scenes more swoon-worthy in all of children's movie history than that romantic dance between Sawa and Christina Ricci, who played Kat, and Sawa's brief appearance cemented him as one of the decade's premiere heartthrobs. He would go on to star in "Now and Then," which reunited him with Ricci and paired him up with '90s icons like Thora Birch; in "Wild America," he acted alongside Jonathan Taylor Thomas in yet another movie sure to get teenage hearts fluttering. "Idle Hands" and "Final Destination" followed, cementing Sawa as a major force in horror.

That's a legacy that Sawa has revisited in recent years, including spending multiple seasons on the "Chucky" television show. In 2025, he appeared in a slasher movie called "Heart Eyes," a movie that contains lots of nods to classic horror movies like the ones that included Sawa. He's clearly older now and still handsome, but you might not even realize that Detective Zeke Hobbs in "Heart Eyes" is the same kid from those '90s movies.

He told Forbes that he's grateful his career has allowed him to be choosier with projects, explaining, "At some point in my career, I started thinking, like, 'I just want to do stuff that I would go and see.'"

The Lawrence brothers were inescapable in the 1990s, dominating media for kids thanks to shows like "Brotherly Love" and Disney Channel movies like "Horse Sense." Joey Lawrence even had a leading role on "Blossom," one of the decade's biggest sitcoms, starring opposite future "Big Bang Theory" star Mayim Bialik in her child acting days. His dumb jock Joey was a leather jacket-clad dream, a handsome hunk with a heart of gold. In fact, to hear Lawrence tell it, the character even inspired another iconic '90s Joey. On an episode of "Magical Rewind" (via People), Lawrence insisted, "Joey Russo on the 'Blossom' show was so successful that when they were creating 'Friends,' they wanted a 25-year-old version of that." Thank you, Joey Lawrence, for Joey Tribbiani. Who would we be without him?

Lawrence has continued acting in recent decades, including leading "Melissa & Joey" with another '90s icon, Melissa Joan Hart. He's no longer as baby-faced and beautiful as he once was, however, and he frequently shaves his head instead of wearing the long locks that made him famous.

But unlike some stars on this list, Lawrence would very much like you to remember the 1990s. He mostly spends his time now on a podcast with his brothers, fittingly called "Brotherly Love." They recap their old shows, revisit other '90s nostalgia pieces, and talk fondly about the days when they were on top of the world.

It's hard to be hotter than Heath Ledger, but in the 1999 film "10 Things I Hate About You," Andrew Keegan sure gave him a run for his money. The '90s heartthrob played Joey Donner in the film, the handsome senior who Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) falls in love with; he's the one who hires Heath Ledger's character to romance Julia Stiles to get her out of the way. He'd first won fans as Zack Dell in "Camp Nowhere," going on to lead a TV remake of "Freaky Friday" and winning a pivotal role in "Independence Day," one of the defining movies of the decade.

While Ledger remained an A-lister until his untimely death and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is still around and looking good, Keegan's career hasn't been up to the same level since they all starred in "10 Things" together. In 2025, he led "Healing Towers," a Tubi film about a cop who tries to rescue his daughter from a deranged mental health facility. Watching that film, you may never notice that Keegan was the jock who was meddling in Ledger's love life way back in the day. On an episode of the podcast "Call Me Adam," Keegan's answer to the question of why he wanted to be part of the movie was a bit noncommittal. Before paying lip service to the movie's themes around mental health, he explained dryly, "It's always a wonderful experience to be in, you know, the filmmaking process."

There was no arguing with Brendan Fraser's beauty in the 1990s. He astonished audiences with his shredded physique in "George of the Jungle," dazzled fans as the swashbuckling adventurer Rick O'Connell in "The Mummy," and was even the object of Ian McKellan's affections in the excellent, tender 1998 drama "Gods and Monsters." If you wanted someone who could romance Alicia Silverstone as a good-natured, irresistible boy who'd spent his life underground, you called Fraser. (That's "Blast From the Past," kids.) If you wanted someone who could play an adorably goofy lunkhead straight out of the Stone Age, Fraser was your guy; that one's "Encino Man."

Though he's continued working in recent years, putting in appearances on shows like "The Affair" and "Doom Patrol," most audiences were reintroduced to Fraser in the 2022 film "The Whale." He won an Oscar for his portrayal of a morbidly obese man who's trapped in his apartment and living out his last days, and audiences were stunned to see that the thoroughly middle-aged man underneath the fat suit was none other than former hunk Brendan Fraser.

Promoting that film, he told "Today" that he'd intentionally taken a step back to dial down the level of fame he'd achieved in the '90s. "I knew that I was ... on a merry-go-round and wanted the music to stop," he said. He added that even though he looks different now, he doesn't mind. "I'm a lot more comfortable in my own skin," he said.

If we're having a discussion about heartthrobs in the 1990s, we have to mention that it was a decade full of boy bands. Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC were two of the biggest groups in all of pop music, giving fans plenty of men to choose from as their favorite one to obsess over. One such boy band member was Joey Fatone, always memorable as part of *NSYNC because of his goatee; hey, it was the '90s. Leave him alone.

Whereas former bandmates like Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass have stayed in the news, carving out niches as solo artists and gay icons respectively, Fatone has made a career shift in recent years. He's now a Broadway star, performing multiple times a week in shows like "Six," a musical about the wives of Henry VIII. If you were to see Fatone onstage in his elaborate period costume, now sporting a big gray beard instead of his goatee, you might never know he sold out stadiums alongside Britney Spears.

"Deadpool vs. Wolverine" brought their "Bye Bye Bye" choreography back to public attention, and Fatone told People it was strange to see their work repurposed for a new generation. "A lot of the younger generation didn't really know us," he said. "People will say, 'Justin's a solo artist,' or 'Lance does this podcast,' or 'Joey was doing this show,' and they don't always realize we were all in a group together."

The 1990s gave us "Beverly Hills, 90210," one of the biggest shows on television at the time ... and one of the most reliable generators of certified heartthrobs. In addition to dreamy guys like Luke Perry and Brian Austin Green, the show also gave us Jason Priestley, a pretty boy who had some of the bluest eyes you've ever seen. He even got name-dropped in "Clueless," his cool-guy image compared — if a little unfavorably — to ultra-hot Americana icon James Dean.

Priestley still acts, including on the CW show "Wild Cards." You're more likely to recognize him if he comes across your Instagram feed, however, thanks to the helpful clue that is his username. In between posts about various fan conventions he attends with former "Beverly Hills, 90210" cast members, Priestley spends a lot of time online these days hawking Pilates classes at the studio he runs in Nashville. Though he's clearly much older now and no longer has enough hair for the classic pompadours that made him famous, those blue eyes still shine through.

These days, we get a lot of our heartthrobs from superhero movies. The 1990s weren't quite on that level, but there were still plenty of stars who emerged from that decade's attempts at turning comic books into movies. One such stunner was Chris O'Donnell. After memorable parts in hits like "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Scent of a Woman," and "The Three Musketeers," O'Donnell was responsible for a whole generation having a thing for superheroes thanks to his turn as Robin in the otherwise poorly received "Batman & Robin." The movie was a fever dream, but for certain viewers, O'Donnell in that super-suit was undeniable. His jaw could cut glass, and those molded-on super-suit abs didn't hurt, either. 

O'Donnell is still around, but his matinee idol good looks have faded into the kind of generically handsome guy you can imagine leading a CBS procedural ... which he has done. O'Donnell can be spotted on hundreds of episodes of "NCIS: Los Angeles," and beginning in 2025, he'll star on a new procedural called "9-1-1: Nashville." He's also gone from heartthrob to family man, telling Rolling Stone, "It's the most amazing feeling in the world to hold your child in your arms." He now has five kids.

Johnny Depp first hit screens in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "21 Jump Street," two iconic 1980s properties, but by the time the 1990s rolled around, he was a full-blown heartthrob. In 1990, John Waters cast him as a pretty boy with an edge in "Cry-Baby," and that decade also kicked off his many collaborations with Tim Burton, including "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood," and "Sleepy Hollow." There was no denying those cheekbones, and he even won people over thanks to his talent, too, in movies like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."

In recent years, however, Depp's story has taken an ugly turn. He was accused of domestic violence against Amber Heard, and when he sued her in turn for defamation, the resulting Depp v. Heard trial was full of unforgettable moments that are still reverberating around pop culture to this day. Gone is the pretty-boy Depp of "Cry-Baby" and the like; instead, he wears his hair longer these days. He sports questionable facial hair, and he has an attitude that merely reminds people of the violence in his personal life rather than the decades he spent as a heartthrob.

As we've already noted, the 1990s loved making heartthrobs out of both boy bands and groups of famous brothers. Hanson was both; they were the hitmakers behind the inescapable '90s tune "MMMBop," and they were also siblings. They sported long hair and were so young that people often confused them for a group of sisters rather than brothers, but those who got it, got it. 

Hanson are still together and making music, but they're no longer as baby-faced as they once were. Instead, they just look like a group of guys, a collection of similar-looking dudes who play rock music that's a far cry from the bubblegum pop of their early days. Still, thanks to their '90s heartthrob images, they continue to get asked for hair care tips whenever they step out in public. Isaac Hanson told "Today" that there was really nothing special about their long locks, reporting, "I wish that we had an ability to say something to people about [our] hair anything other than I use random shampoos." To the surprise of his brothers, Zac Hanson, on the other hand, had one suggestion. "I only wash my hair about once every six weeks," he revealed. "The answer is that, I think, just stop putting chemicals in and let your body just do the work."

If that's not speaking to you, we're here to help. Here's how to get longer and thicker hair, according to science.

While many 1990s heartthrobs have come through the wringer and have emerged on the other side, there are plenty of child stars who died tragically young. Fame is a dangerous game, as they say, and few know that better than Edward Furlong, the star of 1990s smashes like "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." He was long-haired — as many heartthrobs were in those days — and he was troubled, ultimately struggling significantly in the wake of his massive superstardom several decades ago.

Thankfully, Furlong was able to turn things around. He doesn't much look like he used to, but that's okay; Furlong isn't trading on his looks anymore and is focused on getting himself healthy after years of substance abuse. He updated fans on Instagram in 2025, revealing that he'd been sober for seven years and counting. "I'm facing my life head on. No longer running away," he wrote. "I am very grateful to be sober today. ... I used to live life in fear. I despised myself. But I actually never really took the time to get to know myself. And there has been so much that has been worth discovering."