As a child actor in the 1970s, he endured teasing from his peers for appearing in commercials. At 17, he left home for Los Angeles, sharing a cramped apartment with two other aspiring stars. He rose to fame, becoming a household name, but today, he’s nearly unrecognizable and largely absent from Hollywood.
At 55, he looks markedly different from the image that once defined him—gray hair, wrinkles, and a changed face that has drawn direct comments from fans online. Once a widely recognized television star, his appearance today follows a high-speed crash, extensive facial injuries, and a shift away from public life.
From Vancouver to the Center of Teen Television
Born on August 28, 1969, in Vancouver, British Columbia, he began acting at age five in local productions and commercials. His early start in the industry came with challenges. He later said being a child actor in Canada meant “I got beat up more than normal kids.”
At 17, he moved to Los Angeles, where he shared an apartment with actor Bernie Coulson. Another young actor, Brad Pitt, occasionally crashed on their couch during auditions.
His breakthrough came in 1990, when he landed the role that would define his early career: the clean-cut lead in a new network drama set in Beverly Hills. The series became a primetime sensation, running for 10 years and earning him two Golden Globe nominations.
While working on the show, he also started directing and producing, gaining credits across television dramas, music videos, and documentaries. But by the end of that decade, his name would make headlines for an entirely different reason.
A Wrecked Car, a Broken Arm, and a Mugshot
In the early hours of December 3, 1999, he was behind the wheel in Hollywood when his car veered into trash cans, struck a power pole, hit another set of trash cans, and finally crashed into a parked vehicle on Canyon Drive.
It was around 12:30 a.m., and he had a passenger in the car—27-year-old Chad Cook, who suffered a broken right arm and was treated at a local hospital. Police at the scene reported visible signs of intoxication. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and causing injury, a felony.
He posted a $50,000 bond and was released from the LAPD Hollywood Division later that morning. A spokesperson confirmed that blood-alcohol test results were pending at the time.
He would later plead no contest to a misdemeanor DUI charge and complete an alcohol counseling program. The incident resulted in his Porsche being totaled and marked the beginning of a string of high-impact crashes over the years, none more severe than the one that would follow just three years later.
A Crash at 180 MPH and the Aftermath
On August 11, 2002, during a practice session for the Infiniti Pro Series at Kentucky Speedway, his race car slammed head-on into a concrete wall at nearly 180 mph. The crash occurred as he exited the second turn of the track.
Witnesses said he had driven through a patch of “oil-dry,” a granular material used to absorb fluid from an earlier incident, despite warnings for drivers to avoid that area. The impact left him with multiple critical injuries.
He sustained a spinal fracture in the middle of his back, broke bones in both feet, and suffered a closed head injury. He was flown by helicopter to the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center in Lexington.
At the hospital, doctors placed him on a respirator for sedation, though he was breathing on his own and able to follow commands. Medical staff confirmed that he was alert, with stable vital signs and no signs of paralysis.
He had been involved in other accidents before, including a 1995 rally crash in Olympia, Washington, and a 2002 powerboat crash in Miami, but none matched the severity of this one. This was the worst crash of his life, and it left him facing an uncertain future.In an interview after the crash, he described waking up in the hospital and not recognizing what had happened to his body. Speaking to Barbara Walters in early 2003, he said the injuries were so extensive that his face had been smashed almost beyond recognition.
He also feared he might not walk again, recalling thoughts of Christopher Reeve and racing colleague Sam Schmidt, both of whom had suffered paralysis. “I was really, really terrified that that was gonna be me,” he said. In a later interview with Piers Morgan, he detailed the extent of his facial trauma.
“I broke my spine and I shattered both my feet, and I did a lot of damage to my face too. I ripped my nose off my face, and I broke my orbital bone, my cheekbone, and my ocular mantle. They actually had to take my eyeball out and rebuild part of my skull,” he said.
