Out birthday boy Danny Pintauro through the years

Before Neil Patrick Harris was Doogie Howser M.D., another future out actor was cute moppett-ing up the airwaves as one of the stars of another 80's sitcom.

Danny Pintauro starred on Who's The Boss for eight seasons as the son of future gay icon Judith Light. He turns thirty-three today (thirty-three!), so join us after the break as we take a look at Danny's long show-biz career, starting when he co-starred with a drooling, rabid, hulking creature. (I know what you're thinking, but it's not Tony Danza!)

Above you can see the trailer for Danny's film debut, the 1983 adaptation of the Stephen King bestseller Cujo. I saw it again recently after a decade, and had forgotten how natural and raw his performance was. The fact that he didn't know how to read and had to memorize his lines with his mother before each scene makes it all the more exceptional. The first time I saw the movie I remember thinking, "stop screaming, kid!", but looking at it again, it's one of the most realistic kid performances I've ever seen.

Danny hit the big time in 1984 with the premiere of Who's The Boss. Above you can see the opening to what was one of the great "comfort food" sitcoms of the 80's, which co-starred Tony Danza, the great Katherine Helmond, Judith Light (who had the most fabulous hairstyle collection of the 80's), and every straight boy's teen dream, Alyssa Milano.

The Velocity of Gary

After Who's the Boss wrapped up, Danny went to college and shirked the limelight until 1997, when The National Enquirer informed him they were planning to out him in an upcoming issue. He consented to an interview with them and officially came out in June of that year (not surprisingly, the first person he had come out to was his sitcom mom, Judith). In 2000, he starred as a gay hustler in the stage version of The Velocity of Gary.

We haven't heard all that much from Danny recently ... well, besides ... you know ... those "other" pics that came out ... but we won't go into that here. (Danny, hon, you included a face shot! Did you really think people wouldn't recognize you?)

Wherever he is, we wish Danny a happy birthday, and hopefully we'll see him onscreen again soon!