10 Adorable Child Actors Disfigured by Puberty

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | September 27, 2012 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | September 27, 2012 |

In watching last night’s “Modern Family,” I was struck by a few thoughts: 1) was it just me, or was that an unexpectedly amusing episode; 2) what has Sarah Hylan done to herself, and why is she in such a hurry to grow up; and 3) Nolan Gould — who plays Luke Dunphy — is about to go through puberty on national television.

Puberty is often not an adorable kid’s friend, and it’s gotta suck to go through that in front of millions of people. You never really know for sure, but often the strange characteristics that make for a truly adorable child don’t translate well post-puberty. It’s hard to predict, of course, because years ago, I just assumed that poor Jonathan Lipnicki would have a rough life post-puberty, but he turned out fine.

You can’t say the same for these 10 former adorable child actors.

Macauley Culkin (Home Alone

Henry Thomas (E.T.)

Charlie Korsmo (Dick Tracy, Hook and Can’t Hardly Wait)

Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense

Sawyer and Sullivan Tweeten (The Kids from “Everybody Loves Raymond)

Erik Per Sullivan (“Malcolm in the Middle”)

Brian Bonsall (from “Family Ties”)

Fred Savage (“Wonder Years”)

Jeremy Miller (Ben Seaver, from “Growing Pains”)

Michael Fishman (“Roseanne”)