Noah Hathaway

Noah Leslie Hathaway (born November 13, 1971) is an American actor and a former teen idol. He is best known for his roles as Atreyu in the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story and for portraying Boxey on the original television series Battlestar Galactica. His work in The NeverEnding Story made him particularly popular as a teen idol in Europe.

Hathaway was born in Los Angeles, California. He began appearing in commercials at age three, and later starred in several TV films and series, including an episode of Family Ties, episode 4 of season 4 called “Designated Hitter.” At the age of six he appeared in Battlestar Galactica, portraying Boxey, for which he received a nomination in the first Young Artist Awards.

He was cast as Atreyu in the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story. He received his second Young Artist Awards nomination and won the award for Best Younger Actor in the 12th Annual Saturn Awards.

For the role Hathaway performed his own stunts, leading to a few near-injuries; German director Wolfgang Petersen said:

I sought a good-looking boy of athletic build with the quality of fierce determination. The role requires the character to ride a horse expertly, fly on the back of a dragon, struggle through a swamp, clamber over rocks and fight a ferocious wolf-vampire.

Hathaway observed:

Well, what it was — Wolfgang Petersen was notorious for his actors doing their own stunts. His actors are always getting hurt, because he wanted — audiences are very savvy; you can cut away and show the back of somebody and show the stuntman doing their stunt. And everybody knows that, so he wants his actors to do as much as they can for the realism of the movie. Accidents happen, and actors aren't stuntmen. That's why they have stuntmen, because if someone gets hurt, they're "expendable." And some of the times, they're just more careful. I just ended up paying.

Hathaway has said that, during the time he worked as a tattoo artist, he could see for himself the film's on-going popularity, as clients regularly requested tattoos of the AURYN amulet his character wore, in the film. He claims to have given fifteen different clients AURYN amulet tattoos in three weeks.