As a former child star, Brian Bonsall knows all too well about the pitfalls of fame.
In the latest episode of Investigation Discovery’s new series, “Hollywood Demons,” the “Family Ties” actor – who famously played Andrew Keaton on the 1980s sitcom – details his early years of stardom, the downfalls that eventually led to decades of substance abuse, and the immense “guilt” he feels after one obsessed man began impersonating him while he embarked on a “random terror against women.”
“[Family Ties] pushed me to the limelight to a point where I couldn’t walk down the street,” he said of finding fame at an early age.
Bonsall, who was also featured in films such as “Father Hood” with Patrick Swayze, Disney’s “Blank Check” and “Father and Scout” with Bob Saget, retired from acting when he was in his mid-teens and quickly turned to substances, particularly alcohol, as a way to cope with the transition.
“Child actors face mood disturbance, not having their production world that family that came to know and rely on, and then start reaching for substances to fill that pain and regulate those emotions,” said Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is featured in the documentary.
“I found comfort in drinking because it was an escape from this reality of not really feeling like I fit in,” Bonsall said. “After getting into drinking, it led me to living on the street, DUIs all the time and crazy places that you would never imagine being or seeing yourself.”
Between 2007 and 2010, Bonsall was arrested multiple times for assault, DUIs and violating probation.
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Things took a scary turn in 2013. Bonsall, who was playing in a band at the time, had discovered there was a man who had been impersonating him as a way to victimize women.
“He had a bunch of my tattoos in the same places,” Bonsall said.
“It seemed that someone had adopted Brian’s identity. He presents himself as former child star from ‘Family Ties’ and he actually gets tattoos identical to Brian’s in order to start his random terror on women,” Dr. Drew added in the episode.
After going to the police department in Boulder, Colorado, Bonsall said he was told to “handle this [himself].”
“This cop did not take me seriously at all, and maybe that’s because I was borderline the town drunk at the time,” Bonsall said.
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Nathan Loebe, the man who had been impersonating Bonsall, was arrested in 2017 and convicted of raping and terrorizing at least seven women over a 12-year span in 2021. He was sentenced to 274 years in prison.
“I remember meeting him,” Bonsall said in the documentary. “I remember his crazy eyes. I met him in 2004 in jail when I was there for my second DUI. I guess he got really obsessed with me right off the bat.”
Bonsall said it’s still really difficult to grasp that his fame had something to do with Loebe’s obsession.
“It’s really hard to tell that story,” he said. “For one, it’s hard to not cry. There’s definitely a feeling of guilt. Those girls, they wanted to go on a date with me because I was a child actor.”
Bonsall said it “clicked” in his head that he had met this person “because of some of the mistakes” he had made throughout his life.
In January 2016, Bonsall hit rock bottom and decided to get his life back on track. “It clicked for me. My drinking led to bad things,” he said. “I was going to die.”
Now, the dad-of-one is going on nine years of sobriety.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Drew said it’s common for child stars to experience “genetic burdens” that can lead to inevitable downfalls.
“People have certain genetic burdens. People have certain childhood experiences,” he said. “The point I always made is, my friend, Danny Bonaduce, always told me, ‘I know lots of child stars. I was a child star.’ He goes, ‘The ones who really had trouble, had problems with their parents, had childhood trauma of one type or another, and that’s for sure.'”
Dr. Drew said, “It’s the added stress of being parentalized or being treated as an adult, as a child, which, you know, again, having adult responsibilities, living in an adult world, that’s traumatizing. And then these intense relationships that rupture all of a sudden, that’s traumatizing. So there’s a lot that can accumulate that can affect young people.”
WATCH: ‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR RICHARD KARN REACTS TO CO-STAR ZACHERY TY BRYAN ARRESTS
Monday’s episode of “Hollywood Demons” also details the rise and fall of other former child stars, including Dee Jay Daniels (“The Hughleys”), Zachery Ty Bryan (“Home Improvement”) and Orlando Brown (“That’s So Raven”).
Earlier this year, Bryan, who has had multiple run-ins with the law over the years, allegedly choked and punched an unidentified woman during a domestic dispute that led to his arrest on Jan. 1.
The woman accused the “Home Improvement” actor of choking her and punching her in the face multiple times, according to an incident report provided to Fox News Digital by the Myrtle Beach Police Department.
‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ ACTOR ZACHERY TY BRYAN ARRESTED AGAIN FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
In July 2023, Bryan was arrested after authorities in Oregon were called regarding a physical domestic dispute between Bryan and an unnamed woman, Fox News Digital confirmed at the time. He was then charged with two counts of assault in the fourth degree.
In 2024, Bryan was arrested in Oklahoma on a DUI charge, Fox News Digital previously confirmed. After he declined to take a sobriety test, he was placed in the front seat of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol vehicle and taken to jail. During the car ride, Bryan apologized to the arresting officer for “liking to drink.”
“I’m just a good dude, man, I don’t know why everybody – I’m sorry, I like to drink,” Bryan told Trooper Kendrick Johnson.
Brown, who starred as Eddie Thomas alongside Raven-Symoné on the popular Disney Channel show “That’s So Raven” from 2003 to 2007, has also had his share of legal troubles.
In the documentary, an ex-girlfriend detailed Brown’s erratic behavior while in a relationship with the former child star.
In 2022, Brown was arrested and charged with domestic violence.
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An arrest report obtained by People magazine at the time alleged that a person claiming to be a relative said Brown was acting “crazy” and “came at him with a hammer and knife in a threatening manner.”
The relative also claimed that Brown had been staying at his home for about two weeks because Brown “is homeless, and he did not want him to go to a homeless shelter.”
In 2018, during an episode of “Dr. Phil,” the actor admitted he had been drinking a lot, using drugs and selling crystal meth.
Daniels, who played Michael Hughley for four seasons of the ABC sitcom from 1998 to 2002, was arrested in 2011 following an altercation outside a California bar that led to the stabbing and death of a man.
The former actor and two other men were charged with street terrorism due to witness testimony that they shouted gang-related terms, as well as premeditated murder, and attempted premeditated murder, according to Entertainment Weekly.
In the documentary, Daniels, who was acquitted of his charges, detailed the emotional moment he found out his TV dad, D.L. Hughley, showed up to court as a character witness.
“I felt esteemed, honored, that I haven’t talked to my pops in so long and the fact that he’s still my pops, and that we still have that pops/son relationship, because I didn’t know we had that,” Daniels said in the documentary.
“Hollywood Demons” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Investigation Discovery.
Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz and Larry Fink contributed to this report.
