Bryton

Avid viewers of Friday-night television during the very late '80s and early '90s may remember actor Bryton McClure (also occasionally credited as simply Bryton) for his decade-long contribution to the "TGIF" sitcom Family Matters; he played Richie, the impossibly cute, preschool-aged son of Aunt Rachel (Telma Hopkins) -- and one of a handful of sitcom children who instantaneously "grew up" from one season to the next sans explanation. (In truth, McClure inherited the role from infant twins Julius and Joseph Wright in 1990 after series producers decided to increase the age of Rachel's son.) An actor from the time he could walk, McClure entered show business at the age of two, by auditioning for -- and then starring in -- a "Bath Time Mickey Mouse" advertisement on television. Numerous commercials followed, which in turn led to the Family Matters assignment; McClure carried that role from 1990 until the series folded in 1998.

At about the same time, McClure branched off into a music career by signing on as an R&B vocalist for Universal Polydor Records in 1998, which made him the youngest artist signed to the label at that point. A compilation album containing the performer's blockbuster single "Ooh the Way I Feel About You" then sold a reported nine million copies, and McClure acquired his most avid following in Europe, where he performed a live set on television to an audience of 100 million viewers. Not long after, the tumultuous events of 9/11 erupted and prompted Bryton and his parents to remain in the United States (effectively putting his European music career on hold for a time), but McClure rebounded as a soap star following high school, and landed the multi-season role of Devon on the seminal midday drama The Young and the Restless. The actor's work on that program won him a 2006 Daytime Emmy for Best Young Actor in a Daytime Drama. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide