Johnathon Schaech (born September 10, 1969) is an American actor, writer, and director.Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland to Joseph, a Baltimore City law enforcement officer, and Joanne Schaech, a human resources executive. He is of German and Italian descent, and was raised Roman Catholic. Schaech has a sister Renee, who now lives in Cumberland and is director of Western Maryland's agency on aging.
Schaech began his acting career doing commercials in Baltimore. Johnathon packed up his Toyota truck and moved out to Los Angeles in 1989 to pursue his dream. He immediately met legendary acting coach, Roy London. He studied with Roy for four years, getting bit parts here and there till he won the lead role in Franco Zeffirelli's period feature Storia di una Capinera (Sparrow) opposite academy award winner, Vanessa Redgrave. Johnathon was sent to London to study dialect prior to production. The feature would be filmed in parts of Sicily and Cinecittà studios in Rome.
After over a year working on the movie, Johnathon went back to Hollywood only to discover his acting teacher Roy London had become ill and soon would pass away. He was also greatly disappointed to discover Franco dubbed his entire performance without giving Johnathon an opportunity to loop the film himself.
But Johnathon did not allow these personal challenges to interfere with his career, instead he used them to motivate him. He immediately went out and won pivotal roles in How to Make an American Quilt opposite Winona Ryder; and also the role of Xavier Red in Greg Araki's controversial indie, The Doom Generation.
Two time Oscar winner Tom Hanks would cast him next as the ambitious lead singer of The Wonders in That Thing You Do, which was Tom's writing and directing debut. He then took the male lead opposite Academy Award winners Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange in the thriller HUSH.
Johnathon was finally on the Hollywood map and he was featured as one of the most promising leading men of tomorrow on the 1996's Vanity Fair cover opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith and Benicio del Toro.
But major film stardom eluded Johnathon, because instead of taking more studio jobs he would follow his heart back to independent films. The indies allowed him to play more diverse challenging characters in unique scripts. He took the lead opposite Harvey Keitel in Finding Graceland and tried his comedic chops in Stephan Elliott's Welcome to Woop Woop. Woop Woop was Stephan's follow up film to his highly praised, Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
