The Seahawk

Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: Lifestyles

Whether or not you know it, you have either seen or heard Thomas Dekker, one of Hollywood's most talented rising stars. His resume reads like a dream list for any actor, with stints on "ER," "The Young & the Restless," "Caroline in the City," all leading to his starring role in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" the television series. He even voiced Littlefoot in "The Land Before Time" (sequels 5 - 9) and a character on "Family Guy." But now the 18-year-old is about to make pop icon status as the geek-but-chic sidekick in this fall's most anticipated new series, "Heroes."

In a phone interview, Dekker recalls his first job was singing the jingle to a Huggies Pull-ups commercial. Soon after, at only six years old, the Las Vegas native was co-staring with Christopher Reeve in John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned." Cast because he acted like a man stuck in a child's body, according to Carpenter, Dekker recalls the news of Reeve's paralyzing accident as hard to grasp at such a young age.

"I remember knowing that he would never be able to squeeze anyone's hand again, like he did in one of the film's climatic scenes," Dekker said.

Dekker was most often recognized as the crippled boy who almost had his baseball card stolen by Kramer in a "Seinfeld" episode. until Dekker landed the role of bad boy Vincent on "7th Heaven."

"I felt a lot of responsibility as Ruthie's first boyfriend and felt a lot of pressure from the show's diehard fans," he said.

Dekker's character received such a warm welcome from fans that his role was expanded from two episodes to a series regular in the ninth season. After Ruthie kicked Vincent to the curb, Dekker guest starred on "House M.D." as a child faith healer. But it is his role as Zach in NBC's "Heroes" (Sept. 25) that may rocket him to icon status.

"Heroes" is described as "X-Men" meets "Lost," where a handful of unrelated people have been gifted with super powers. Thomas plays the gawky, artsy childhood friend of popular cheerleader, Claire (Hayden Panettiere of "Remember the Titans"), who finds herself unable to get physically injured. You may recall seeing previews where Dekker's character films Claire jumping off a bridge, snapping her neck and then standing up without a scratch on her.

"The only reason Claire talks to Zach is because he is the only one who knows her secret," said Dekker.

He hints that there may be an underlying love brewing between Claire and Zach, a character that producers allowed Dekker to help develop. In addition to "Heroes," the hypnotic-eyed-actor was recently in Wilmington filming the TV pilot, "IQ 145," that will complete post-production and be shopped around to studios in the new year.

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