More sturdy in build than his brother Fred, and with heavier facial features, Ben Savage may have followed his older brother into acting, but he established himself as the star of the ABC sitcom "Boy Meets World" (1993-2000). Savage began acting in commercials in his native Chicago at age five and made his film debut as Fred Savage's young brother Eric in "Little Monsters" (1989). Other film credits include "Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even" (1992, as Sam, the brainy little brother) and "Clifford" (1994 opposite Martin Short playing a 10-year old).
Savage established himself more strenuously on TV. His first series work came in the recurring role of Judd Hirsch's son on the NBC sitcom "Dear John", then he was one of a family of orphans who con Robert Mitchum into being their guardian in "A Family For Joe" (NBC, 1990). He was also Coty, the sweet looking youth with killer instincts in the ABC miniseries, "Wild Palms" (1993). When "Boy Meets World" premiered in the fall of 1993, advertising agencies predicted that the clever Cory Matthews character would succeed. Indeed, the sitcom became a staple of the ABC's "T.G.I.F." Friday schedule. Savage has also worked in a few TV-movies, including "She Woke Up" (ABC, 1992), with Lindsay Wagner, and "McDonald's Family Theatre Presents: Aliens for Breakfast" (ABC, 1995), as a young teen whose breakfast cereal figures come alive.