Highlights
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas, 45, was booked on suspicion of felony obstruction after a traffic stop early Monday.
- He was a passenger; deputies say he got out of the car during a DUI investigation and resisted arrest.
- The former Home Improvement star, who left acting for school, was released and has not publicly commented.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who walked away from Hollywood more than two decades ago, spent part of Monday in a sheriff’s station holding cell.
The actor was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest during a traffic stop, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies pulled over the car he was riding in at about 12:30 a.m. near Westlake Boulevard and Townsgate Road.
Thomas, 45, was not behind the wheel. The driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
According to the sheriff’s department, deputies were conducting a DUI investigation when Thomas got out of the car and resisted arrest. Jail records show he was booked on suspicion of felony obstruction or resisting an executive officer.
TMZ‘s law enforcement sources offered more detail. They said deputies told him to stay inside the vehicle, but he stepped out anyway.
Those sources said Thomas “refused and was uncooperative,” as Just Jared summarized the report.
The same sources alleged he was drunk in public. The sheriff’s account, as reported by NBC Los Angeles, does not include that claim.
He was held at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. TMZ reported he was released shortly after, while NBC Los Angeles said jail records showed his release on Tuesday.
A booking on suspicion is not a charge. No charging decision has been reported.
Thomas has not commented on the incident. NBC Los Angeles said it reached out to him for a response.
For a generation of fans, he is still Randy Taylor. He started in print and TV ads as a child before landing the role on Home Improvement in the 1990s.
He chose to step away at its height. He left the sitcom before its 1999 finale to focus on school, went on to Harvard, studied abroad at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, and graduated from Columbia in 2010.
He explained the decision to People in 2013: “I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old.”
He kept his word about privacy. Over the past decade, he was photographed only a handful of times, out to dinner in 2013 and walking his dogs in 2021.
He did return briefly for guest spots on Tim Allen‘s Last Man Standing in the 2010s and directed several episodes of the sitcom.
This summer, his TV mom Patricia Richardson posted a photo with Thomas and Taran Noah Smith, the actors who played her sons.
The picture reminded fans how rarely they see him. This week, they saw him for a very different reason.
It remains unclear whether prosecutors will file charges.
