What Happened to Antonio Sabato Jr.? Hard Hats and Faith in 2026

If you came of age in the ’90s, Antonio Sabato Jr. was inescapable. He was the chiseled face — and torso — on the Calvin Klein billboard above Times Square, the brooding bad boy Jagger on General Hospital, and a fixture of every magazine your older sister taped to her wall. Then, somewhere along the way, he slipped off the Hollywood radar entirely. So whatever happened to one of the decade’s defining heartthrobs? The answer takes us from a soap-opera soundstage to a congressional ballot to a construction site in Florida. Here’s where Antonio Sabato Jr. is in 2026.

01Profile

Full name

Antonio Sabàto Jr.

Born

February 29, 1972 (54 years old)

Birthplace

Rome, Italy

Occupation

Actor, model, film producer, real estate agent

Best known for

"General Hospital" (1992–1995), Calvin Klein underwear campaign (1990s)

Other notable work

"Melrose Place," "Earth 2," "The Bold and the Beautiful"

Yes, he was born on a Leap Day, which makes the birthday math a running joke in his own family. He’s the son of Italian actor Antonio Sabàto Sr., emigrated to the United States as a kid, and grew up in California chasing the same dream his father had — before becoming far more famous than either of them expected.

02The Rise of a 90s Heartthrob

The Calvin Klein billboard heard round the world

Sabato’s break didn’t come from acting at all — it came from his physique. In the early 1990s he became the face (and body) of Calvin Klein’s underwear campaign, posing in black-and-white ads that loomed over Times Square and ran in magazines worldwide. For a generation, that image was Antonio Sabato Jr. He later appeared in a Janet Jackson music video and became one of the most photographed male models of the era, a heartthrob before the word “influencer” existed.

Jagger Cates and soap stardom

In 1992, Sabato joined the cast of ABC’s “General Hospital” as Jagger Cates, a tough kid from the wrong side of town who melts every heart in Port Charles. The role ran through 1995 and made him a daytime sensation — the kind of soap star whose face sold magazines and whose storylines drove the show’s ratings. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy and became one of the genre’s defining young leading men.

Branching into primetime and film

Sabato wasn’t content to stay in daytime. He played a pilot on NBC’s science-fiction series “Earth 2” (1994–95), turned up on Aaron Spelling’s primetime juggernaut “Melrose Place,” and worked steadily through the late ’90s and 2000s across television and film. He also returned to soaps over the years, including a stint on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Reality TV came calling, too: he headlined VH1’s dating show “My Antonio” in 2009 and competed on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in 2007. For most of two decades, he was a working, recognizable Hollywood name.

03The Turning Point: Politics and a Blacklist Claim

Then, in 2016, Sabato did something few working actors do: he stepped onto a national political stage. On the opening night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, he delivered a primetime speech endorsing then-candidate Donald Trump. By his own account, the fallout was immediate and severe.

• 2016Sabato speaks at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump. He soon tells Variety and other outlets that he believes Hollywood has "blacklisted" him over the appearance.
• 2016–2017He says his representation walked away, telling reporters, "My agents and my managers all left me," and that jobs he had lined up "all went away."
• 2017–2018Sabato launches a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 26th District, running as a Republican.
• 2018He loses the general election to the Democratic incumbent.
• 2019–2020With acting work scarce in Los Angeles, Sabato decides to leave California, later calling the state "unlivable," and accepts a construction job in Florida from a friend.

It’s worth being precise here, because the story is often retold loosely. The “blacklist” is Sabato’s own characterization, reported as his claim by Variety, Fox News, the Washington Times and others; Hollywood has no formal blacklist, and there is no way to independently confirm that any specific casting decision turned on his politics. What is documented is that Sabato said it publicly, repeatedly, and that his on-screen career in mainstream Hollywood thinned out considerably after 2016. Whatever the cause, the man who had been a fixture of ’90s TV largely stopped appearing in the kinds of projects that made him famous.

04Life After Hollywood

Trading the soundstage for a hard hat

The most striking part of Sabato’s second act is also the most literal: he became a construction worker. After the move to Florida, he took a job with a construction company owned by a longtime friend, and he’s spoken openly and without embarrassment about the work. By his account, he’s helped build schools, colleges and hospitals around the Tampa area — a long way from Calvin Klein billboards, and he seems entirely at peace with that.

He’s also licensed as a real estate agent in Florida, working with a Tampa-area realty group, adding another ordinary, off-camera profession to his post-Hollywood life.

“I went from being a movie star and a model to working construction. And I’m not ashamed of it. I love it. I’m building things, I’m with my family, and I’m happy.” — Antonio Sabato Jr., in interviews about his move to Florida

A memoir and a new mission

In the summer of 2020, Sabato published a memoir, “Sabato: The Untold Story,” tracing his path from Italian immigrant to ’90s star and through the turmoil that followed. Around the same time, he leaned into faith-based filmmaking. He took a role in “God’s Not Dead: We the People” (2021) alongside Isaiah Washington and William Forsythe, playing a father fighting to protect a homeschooling program — the start of a deliberate pivot toward Christian and conservative-leaning movies that has defined his recent creative life.

05What He Is Doing Now

Still acting, on his own terms

Sabato never fully walked away from the camera. In recent years he’s appeared in a string of independent and faith-based films, including “Grace by Night,” which he has said is streaming on Amazon Prime, and an inspirational film titled “4:26.” He’s also talked about directing and producing his own projects, and in 2024 he traveled to Australia to film a music video for singer-songwriter Kristin Venae. The volume is lower than his ’90s heyday, but he is, by his own description, working steadily again.

Building a studio of his own

Rather than wait for Hollywood to call, Sabato has set out to build an alternative. He announced ConFlix Studios, a venture aimed at producing patriotic, faith-friendly entertainment, and has floated an ensemble project called “Trailblazers” featuring fellow conservative-leaning actors such as Dean Cain, Kevin Sorbo and Scott Baio. In a 2025 interview with Newsmax, he framed his renewed work as evidence of a shifting industry.

“I think the woke agenda is completely over, and I can tell you that because of the work I’m getting.” — Antonio Sabato Jr., Newsmax, April 2025

Family, faith and Florida

These days, Sabato describes himself less as a celebrity and more as a working father who happens to have a famous past. He’s settled in Florida, splits his time between construction, real estate and his film projects, and speaks frequently about his Christian faith in interviews with conservative outlets. It’s a quieter, more grounded life than the one that put him on a Times Square billboard — and he insists it’s a happier one.

06Summary

Antonio Sabato Jr.’s story is one of the more unusual second acts to come out of ’90s stardom: a heartthrob who became a political flashpoint, then traded the spotlight for a hard hat, and finally tried to build his own corner of the movie business from scratch.

Whatever you make of his politics, Sabato’s arc resists the usual fallen-star narrative. He didn’t disappear into scandal or vanish without a trace — he changed lanes, loudly and on purpose, and built a new life around family, faith and a hard day’s work. For a one-time billboard idol, that may be the most surprising plot twist of all.