Johnathon Schaech
Johnathon Schaech is an actor, born 1969.
Johnathon Schaech got a mid-1990s launch that promised a different career than the one he has had. Born in Edgewood, Maryland in 1969, he arrived with How to Make an American Quilt and the abrasive road film The Doom Generation in 1995, then took the role most people still associate with him: Jimmy Mattingly, the singer and songwriter of the band in That Thing You Do! in 1996.
Jimmy is the key to what he does best. Schaech plays handsome men whose self-regard is the whole problem, and he plays it without asking for sympathy, so the audience is left to work out how much of the charm is real. The same quality is put to blunter use in horror and thrillers: Richard Fenton in Prom Night, George Fletcher in Quarantine, Sean Walker in Ray Donovan, Mims in Marauders. He writes as well as acts.
The volume since is remarkable and the quality is not consistent. There are dozens of action and horror pictures made for a market that no longer needs a theatrical release: The Legend of Hercules, Takers, Acts of Vengeance, Flight 7500, Day of the Dead: Bloodline, Laid to Rest, Jackals, Arsenal. Scattered among them are genuinely good jobs. Phantom in 2013 is a claustrophobic submarine drama, The Night Clerk in 2020 gives him a proper adult character in Nick Perretti, and Hush in 1998 is a tidy piece of nastiness. Approaching this filmography works best if you choose by decade rather than by title count.
Movies (39)
- Frank and Penelope (2022)
- The Legend of Hercules (2014)
- The Night Clerk (2020)
- Takers (2010)
- Acts of Vengeance (2017)
- The Prince (2014)
- That Thing You Do! (1996)
- Vice (2015)
- Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017)
- Somnium (2025)
- Marauders (2016)
- Quarantine (2008)
- Poison Ivy 2: Lily (1996)
- Suitable Flesh (2023)
- Prom Night (2008)
- The Doom Generation (1995)
- 5 Days of War (2011)
- Flight 7500 (2014)
- Phantom (2013)
- How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
- Hush (1998)
- Road House 2: Last Call (2006)
- Splendor (1999)
- Little Chenier (2008)
- Reprisal (2018)
- The Forsaken (2001)
- Judas (2004)
- Laid to Rest (2009)
- ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2 (2011)
- Arsenal (2017)
TV (9)
Where to start with Johnathon Schaech
Begin in 1996 with That Thing You Do!, and note how little he needs to do to make Jimmy insufferable. The film is affectionate about everyone in it except him, and he plays that exposure without flinching or asking to be forgiven.
The Doom Generation is the other half of 1995, and nothing at all like the studio version of him, while How to Make an American Quilt is the respectable prestige entry. For the modern work, The Night Clerk is the most adult thing on this list and easily his best recent performance, and Phantom is a decently mounted submarine thriller. Hush and Prom Night cover the thriller and slasher side, and Ray Donovan is the television showcase. Beyond those, the direct-to-video shelf is enormous and best sampled rather than surveyed.