Dan Pintauro<br><br>Jonathan Bower after eight
years of what he calls “a ton of fun” as Judith Light’s
son on Who’s the Boss?, 16-year-old Danny Pintauro
took on the role of a typical sophomore at Montclair
Prep in Los Angeles. “I was really focused on
finishing school and getting into a good college,” says
Pintauro, now 24. “I was in the honors program, a smarty
pants.” And the apple of his TV family’s eye. “I was very
proud of him,” says Tony Danza. Katherine Helmond brags
about how “Danny was tops in Boy Scouts – he made Eagle
Scout!” Pintauro, who now goes by Dan, went to Stanford
University and in 1998 earned a degree in drama. His
performance last year in a one-man Off-Broadway show about a
naïve street hustler called The Velocity of Gary (Not
His Real Name) was well-received. This year, Pintauro
got some backstage experience as an assistant stage
manager at Manhattan’s City Center theater. “I’ve been an
actor since I was 2, but I had to prove myself all over
again,” says Pintauro, who aspires to direct but plans to
reprise Gary this fall in San Francisco. He has also
proved that honesty is the best policy in handling
rumors about his sexuality. In 1997, Pintauro spoke
publicly about being gay after a tabloid threatened to out
him. “It turned into a positive thing,” he says. “I
had nothing to hide. I was not at all secretive about
it. There was nobody in my own life who didn’t know.”
But Pintauro does have one secret, which he’ll share:
“Who’s the Boss? is on every day now, and I have to
admit I do watch it. For me, it’s like looking through
an old yearbook.”