From PEOPLE Magazine Click to enlarge
When it comes to escaping the ravages of teen acne, it helps to have a dad who's a doc. Jonathan Jackson's father, Rick, a family practitioner, prescribed the pimple-prevention drug Accutane for three months when his son was 14, to "stop the acne before it started," says the 16-year-old actor. His unblemished face has graced the small screen of General Hospital, where he played Lucky, the son of supercouple Luke and Laura, for the past six years. Then, in March he busted out of the box to star as Michelle Pfeiffer's troubled son in this year's The Deep End of the Ocean. The medicine "worked," says Jonathan. "I haven't had many problems at all." His fans couldn't be more appreciative. They come in two types, observes his mother, Jeanine. Those who are "stunned to silence" by his azure eyes, which "have always been that blue," she says. And those who are reduced to screaming, " 'OH, MY GOD, OH, MY GOD!!!!' Jonathan just smiles and puts them at ease."

Jackson grew up in Vancouver, Wash., where his mom managed his dad's medical office. But a 1991 family trip to Universal Studios left him and brother Richard, now 19, bitten by the acting bug. Jeanine moved with her sons to Los Angeles (dad Rick visits every weekend, and sister Candice, 21, is a law student at Pepperdine), and within six months Jonathan landed his GH gig. (Richard, meanwhile, made Calista Flockhart's heart flutter as a hunky teen on an Ally McBeal episode.) The brothers work out together with a personal trainer, but the 5'7" Jonathan, like any other teen, is still testing the waters of his own style. "I try to fix my hair, get the right clothes, make sure they match, and get the cologne and everything going," he says, noting that his favorite scent is Calvin Klein's Escape. And he pierced his left ear three years ago, a move that raised eyebrows at his hometown Seventh-Day Adventist church, with which he has close ties. "I hope they understand," he says, "that faith doesn't really come from whether you have an earring or not."

Currently single (his dream girl is "a best friend with a great body!"), Jonathan admits that he gets "incredibly nervous" asking for dates. But a growing pile of film offers, which he will exit GH this spring to pursue, leaves little time for romance. "He's 16 and he's riding the tail of his own comet," says his TV dad and General Hospital icon Anthony Geary. "I think in 25, 30 and 40 years, everyone will still know who Jonathan Jackson is."