When People Thought Paul From ‘The Wonder Years’ Grew Up to Be Marilyn Manson

Urban legends tend to spread through school playgrounds, cafeterias, and classrooms like a disease. Ask a kid growing up in the ’70s if they thought Pop Rocks and soda could explode in your stomach, and you’d get a solemn nod. In the same decade, kids believed Bubble Yum was made with spider eggs. And in the 1990s, many people were convinced that the child who played geeky Paul Pfieffer on the ABC sitcom The Wonder Years (1988–1993) grew up to become morbid rock star Marilyn Manson.

The difference? Instead of being relegated to school recess, the rumor grew through via the widening influence of the internet.

Paul was the best friend of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage), who juggles adolescence with the shifting cultural landscape of the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Relative to the time it aired, a modern-day Wonder Years would be reflecting on the early 2000s.) Smart but uncoordinated, Paul combined several tropes of the pop culture nerd, including thick-rimmed glasses and braces.

Not long after the show concluded in 1993, a rumor began circulating online that the kid who played Paul, actor Josh Saviano, had abandoned his acting career to take on the role of shock music act Marilyn Manson. As with many urban legends, there was effective juxtaposition: the kid who played a gawky teen in a wholesome sitcom morphed into a stage act brimming with sexual overtones, violent lyrics, and profanity.

The contrast was not unlike rumors that the cardigan-sporting Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood fame had once been an Army sniper (untrue) or that a dead munchkin could be spotted somewhere in the background of the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz (also untrue). In a more relevant example, rock star Alice Cooper was sometimes said to be the same person who played Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver. (It was actor Ken Osmond.)

In interviews later in life, Saviano recalled that he had first heard of the story in the mid-1990s. He was informed, he said, by onetime co-star Danica McKeller, who portrayed Kevin’s girlfriend, Winnie Cooper.

“I think actually it was one of the very first Internet rumors, because it was 1994,” he told Yahoo News in 2013. “The internet was just sort of becoming mainstream, particularly on college campuses. It was just perfect timing and the perfect storm.”

When the rumor reached him, Saviano didn’t even know who Manson was. “I had no idea who [Manson] was at the time,” he told Yahoo. “So [I] spoke to one of my friends at school who did know who he was. It became a progressively more entertaining storyline amongst me and my friends.” According to Snopes, Saviano said he received emails asking if it were true. “And I reply and say, ‘No, of course not,’ ” he said.

Before long, people were writing to newspaper television columnists asking them to verify or debunk the rumor. Most were quick to point out that the story fell apart under even the most casual scrutiny. For one thing, Saviano was seven years younger than Brian Warner, the musician who took the stage name Marilyn Manson. When Saviano was shooting The Wonder Years in 1989 at age 13, Warner was already performing at age 20.

Saviano grew up in New Jersey; Warner was raised in Canton, Ohio. Saviano appeared in commercials and on Broadway prior to booking The Wonder Years; Warner didn’t enter the entertainment industry until after graduating high school.

Saviano ultimately became an entertainment attorney; Manson, meanwhile, has kept a lower profile following a string of sexual assault and abuse allegations lobbed by former girlfriends and co-workers, which he has denied. (After a four-year investigation, Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman announced in January 2025 that the county was opting not to proceed with charges because “allegations of domestic violence fall outside of the statute of limitations, and we cannot prove charges of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt.”)

The urban legend has waned in recent years, though it could have been debunked sooner: Saviano once said he briefly entertained the idea of joining Manson on stage when he was touring nearby. But Saviano was in college and ultimately opted against it. Though he typically took it in stride, it seemed to grow marginally less amusing: As recently as 2014, Saviano was being asked about it during a Wonder Years reunion for Good Morning America and was seemingly annoyed by its persistence.

“I get asked if he’s Marilyn Manson every week,” co-star McKellar said.

Read More About 1990s Pop Culture: