Brian Bonsall on AllMovie

Best known as Andy Keaton, the moon-faced embodiment of childhood innocence, on the classic '80s sitcom Family Ties, actor Brian Bonsall inherited that role after series producer Gary David Goldberg decided to have the character magically "grow up" within a very short span of time. Bonsall joined the program in 1986 (at four years old) and remained with it through its final episode in the fall of 1989. He subsequently tackled occasional TV movies (such as the melodrama Do You Know the Muffin Man?, about child abuse) and -- on a grim and best-forgotten note, attempted to expand his range as a young actor by playing a satanically evil, homicidal tyke in the 1992 thriller Mikey. Bonsall's greatest claim to fame outside of Family Ties, however, lay in playing Alexander on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In 2007, after almost 13 years out of the Hollywood spotlight, then 25-year-old Bonsall made headlines once again, this time for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. He faced criminal charges and a hefty bail.