Jared Rushton

Former child star Jared Rushton gained fame from his appearance as the pint-size best friend to an overgrown Tom Hanks in 1989's comedy fantasy, "Big." In 1990, the young star was nominated for a Saturn Award for his portrayal of one of four teenagers shrunken by a bumbling inventor in the Disney sci-fi comedy "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." Rushton lost in the Best Performance by a Younger Actor category to musician Adan Jodorowsky (son of surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky) for the latter's hard-hitting performance as an institutionalized boy in the eerie "Santa Sangre." Rushton took the lead role in the 1991 film "A Cry in the Wild," a Roger Corman-produced adaptation of "Hatchet," Gary Paulsen's Newberry Medal-winning tale of a young man lost in the Canadian wilderness. In 2000, following nearly a decade of scattered television appearances, Rushton retired from acting to pursue a career in music. Along with his brother Ryan, he joined Southern California-based rockers Withdrawal, whose sole album, The Perfectionist Blacklist (2006), explored the murky intersection of post-hardcore, electronica and post-rock. After Withdrawal's break-up, the Rushton brothers and percussionist Todd Crayton formed Deal by Dusk, a quintet whose music stretches late-90s indie rock into jam-band territory. The group has shared the stage with Jerry Garcia sideman Melvin Seals.