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Erik von Detten

Erik von Detten built a screen career around the kind of roles that stay lodged in the memories of anyone who grew up watching family films and television in the 1990s. Born in San Diego on October 3, 1982, the American actor worked across film, television and voice performance, moving from daytime drama to animated movies and Disney Channel favorites. One of his earliest substantial parts was Nicholas Alamain on Days of Our Lives. Von Detten appeared in 55 episodes between 1992 and 1993, becoming involved in major storylines while still only 10 years old. In 1995, he took on a very different assignment as the voice of Sid Phillips, the gleefully destructive toy-tormentor in Toy Story. Sid may be the villain of the piece, but von Detten’s performance gives the character the reckless energy of a kid who has no idea his toys are keeping score. His later 1990s work made him an especially familiar presence in youth-oriented films. He starred alongside Elisabeth Moss in the television remake of Escape to Witch Mountain, led Christmas Every Day in 1996 and played Wally Cleaver in the 1997 film Leave It to Beaver. In 1998, he took the title role in the Disney Channel original movie Brink!, playing the young inline skater at the center of the story. He then appeared as Clu Bell on So Weird from 1999 to 2001. Von Detten reached another broad family audience as Josh Bryant in The Princess Diaries in 2001. His television appearances also included Dinotopia, Celebrity Mole: Hawaii and Malcolm in the Middle. He made his stage debut in the children’s play The Christmas Princess in Santa Monica in 2007 and appeared in Jessie James’s “Wanted” music video in 2009. In 2010, von Detten briefly returned to Sid Phillips in Toy Story 3, with the former toy-tormentor now working as a garbageman. The cameo brought his acting career back to one of its most recognizable starting points before he retired from the profession.