Henry Thomas Biography

Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor and musician. He made his breakout role as a child actor for Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He also starred in other films, including Raggedy Man (1981), Cloak & Dagger (1984), Misunderstood (1984), Fire in the Sky (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Suicide Kings (1997), All the Pretty Horses (2000), Gangs of New York (2002), ' (2016).

Personal life

Thomas was born an only child in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Carolyn L. (ne Davis), a homemaker, and Henry Jackson Thomas, a hydraulic machinist. He attended East Central High School in San Antonio and Blinn College in Brenham.

Career

Acting career

Thomas said that he decided he wanted to become an actor at age 8, after watching a PBS special on acting and realizing he had found his calling.

After landing a part at an open audition in a San Antonio, Texas hotel, Thomas made his film debut in Raggedy Man (1981), which starred Sissy Spacek and Eric Roberts. At age nine, Thomas auditioned for the lead role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He won the part by giving a genuinely tearful performance, during which he drew upon his real-life trauma of having seen his pet dog being killed by a neighbor"?s dog. The film"?s success exceeded expectations, and Thomas was troubled by the sometimes extreme reaction of the public.

Thomas returned to Texas and only occasionally acted (Cloak & Dagger and on TV) while attending school. He returned to film in the late 1980s and early 1990s and began to prove himself in adult roles, most notably as the younger version of Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates character in Psycho IV: The Beginning.

Thomas dropped out of Texas's Blinn College (where he studied philosophy and history) after one year to act full-time.

His most prominent adult role to date was as "Samuel Ludlow" in Legends of the Fall (1994). In 2002, he played Johnny Sirocco in Martin Scorsese's historical fiction film Gangs of New York. He is currently both an actor and musician and starred in the 2011 film The Last Ride (2011) as musician Hank Williams Sr. In the ABC series Betrayal, he plays T.J. Karsten.

Music

Thomas wrote songs, sang, and played guitar for the San Antonio, Texas band The Blue Heelers (named for the breed of dog) from the mid to late 1990s. Although the band was never signed to a record label, its self-produced album Twister was warmly received and enjoyed statewide radio play. Moving to Los Angeles in 1998, the band dissolved, but Thomas continued to write and record songs. In 1998, his song "Truckstop Coffee" (recorded with the Blue Heelers) appeared on V2's soundtrack to the film Niagara, Niagara in which Thomas appeared.

In 2003, Thomas worked with Nikki Sudden on the music for Mika Kaurismki's film Honey Baby, which featured four original songs written and performed by Thomas as the fictitious musician Tom Brackett. An album was in the works, but Sudden died in 2006.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Raggedy Man	Harry, Jr.
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Elliott
1984	Misunderstood	Andrew
1984	Cloak & Dagger	Davey Osborne
1986	Frog Dreaming	Cody
1989	Valmont	Raphael Danceny
1993	Fire in the Sky	Greg Hayes
1994	Curse of the Starving Class	Wesley Tate
1994	Legends of the Fall	Samuel Ludlow
1997	Bombshell	Buck Hogan
1997	Niagara, Niagara	Seth
1997	Suicide Kings	Avery Chasten
1999	Fever	Nick Parker
2000	A Good Baby	Raymond Toker
2000	All the Pretty Horses	Lacey Rawlins
2001	The Quickie	Alex
2002	Dead in the Water	Jeff
2002	I'm with Lucy	Barry
2002	Gangs of New York	Johnny Sirocco
2003	I Capture the Castle	Simon Cotton
2003	'	Jack
2004	Dead Birds	William
2006	The Hard Easy	Paul Weston
2007	The Last Sin Eater	Man of God
2007	Suffering Man's Charity	Eric Rykell
2008	Red Velvet	Aaron
2010	Dear John	Tim
2013	Big Sur	Philip Whalen
2016	Ouija: Origin of Evil	Father Tom Hogan
2017	Gerald's Game		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Psycho IV: The Beginning	Young Norman Bates	Television film
1992	A Taste for Killing	Cary Sloan	Television film
1994	Beyond Obsession	John Thompson	Television film
1995	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Ray Buckey	Television film
1996	Riders of the Purple Sage	Bern Venters	Television film
1998	Moby Dick	Ishmael	Television film
1999	Happy Face Murders	Dylan McCarthy	Television film
2005	Masters of Horror	Jamie	Episode: "Chocolate"
2006	Desperation	Peter Jackson	Television film
2007-2008	Without a Trace	Franklin Romar	2 episodes
2009	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jeremy Kent	Episode: "If I Had a Hammer"
2011	The Mentalist	Thomas Lisbon	Episode: "Where in the World is Carmine O'Brien?"
2013-14	Betrayal	T.J. Karsten	13 episodes
2015	Sons of Liberty	John Adams	Miniseries
2016	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Sean Roberts	Episode: "Making a Rapist"

Accolades

Awards and nominations for acting

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1982	Young Artist Award	Best Actor	Raggedy Man
1983	Young Artist Award	Best Actor	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
	British Academy Film Awards	Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor
	Saturn Award	Best Actor
1985	Young Artist Award	Best Actor	Cloak & Dagger
1996	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Indictment: The McMartin Trial

Other honors

• VH1's "100 Greatest Kid Stars"
• 2005, ranked #4, E!'s "50 Cutest Child Stars All Grown-up"