In 1992, he gave an Independent Spirit Award-nominated turn opposite Jeff Bridges in American Heart, and earned a second Saturn Award nomination for his work in Pet Sematary Two.

He won a Young Artist Award for his performance alongside Kathy Bates in A Home of Our Own (1993) and appeared in Before and After (1996) with Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson.

Edward Furlong was born August 2, 1977,[2] in Glendale, California, the son of Eleanor Torres (née Tafoya), a youth-center worker, and Heinrich Bruno Wittig.

[7] He had a step-father during the early part of his childhood, Eleanor's then-husband Moises Torres, but the couple's marriage ended before Edward appeared in Terminator 2.

[3] His mother's sister, Nancy Tafoya, and their half-brother, Sean Furlong, obtained custody of him for several years, including 1990-1991, when he began his acting career.

He followed this role with a string of moderately successful high-profile films and independent films, sharing the screen with Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson in Before and After (1996); Tim Roth, Maximilian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave in Little Odessa (1995); Jeff Bridges in American Heart (1993); and Anthony Edwards and Clancy Brown in Pet Sematary Two (1992).

He reprised his role as John Connor in the 1996 theme park ride T2-3D: Battle Across Time alongside Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick.

In 1998, he starred in American History X alongside Edward Norton and appeared in his first comedy role in Pecker, directed by John Waters.

[10] In 2001 he took a lead role in the medieval drama I Cavalieri che fecero l'impresa aka The Knights of the Quest, a little-seen film by Italian filmmaker Pupi Avati.

He was expected to play John Connor again in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003); however the role was recast and given to Nick Stahl shortly before filming began.

[11] When speaking about the history of his substance abuse and its effects on his career Furlong has said that he had been hired to reprise his role in Terminator 3, in what would have been a very lucrative deal for him, but was removed by the producers after an overdose incident which violated the terms of his contract.

Next he starred in This Is Not a Movie, an English-language Mexican film written and directed by Olallo Rubio and co-starring Peter Coyote and Edi Gathegi.

[18] In 2023 Furlong appeared in the movie Charlie's Horse/Heart of a Champion[19] and in The Forest Hills, which was a crowdfunded project mostly shot in 2023 and released in 2024, with Shelley Duvall and Dee Wallace.

In October 1992, Furlong released a pop-music album in Japan, titled Hold on tight, which included a cover of "People Are Strange" by the Doors.

[23] In 2012, Bella alleged in court documents that their six-year-old son had tested positive for cocaine, which led a judge to rule Furlong's visits must be supervised.