Henry Thomas

Henry Jackson Thomas^[1] (born September 9, 1971)^[2] is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and had the lead role of Elliott Taylor in the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), for which he won a Young Artist Award and received Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, and Saturn Award nominations. Thomas also had roles in other films, including Cloak & Dagger (1984), Valmont (1989), Fire in the Sky (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Suicide Kings (1997), All the Pretty Horses (2000), Gangs of New York (2002), 11:14 (2003), and Dear John (2010). Thomas was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for his role in the television film Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1997).

More recently, Thomas collaborated with filmmaker Mike Flanagan, appearing in the films Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Gerald's Game (2017) and Doctor Sleep (2019) as well as the television series The Haunting of Hill House (2018) (which earned him a Saturn Award) and its follow-up series The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020). In 2021, he had a main role in Flanagan's horror series Midnight Mass , and, in 2023, he starred as one of the Usher siblings in The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), also by Flanagan.

Thomas was born in San Antonio, Texas.^[1] He attended East Central High School and Blinn College.^{[1] [3]}

During a 2018 interview with Lorraine Kelly, he commented on his strong connections to Wales, confirming that "Both my mother and father's family come from Wales - north and south". In the same interview, he also stated that he was a fan of Swansea City A.F.C.. ^[4]

Thomas struggled with the popularity he gained in the months following the 1982 release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial .^[5] In November 2019, Thomas reprised his role as Elliott for an Xfinity & Sky UK commercial, in which E.T. returns to visit a now-adult Elliott and his family for the holidays.^[6]

Since 2016, Thomas has worked frequently with filmmaker Mike Flanagan, appearing in his films Ouija: Origin of Evil , Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep , as well as in the Netflix horror series The Haunting of Hill House , which Flanagan created and directed. Thomas also has a role in Flanagan's follow up to The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor , and Flanagan's mini-series Midnight Mass .

Thomas worked in Stargirl portraying Doctor Mid-Nite and voicing his A.I. counterpart "Chuck" until the latter role was recast with Alex Collins in season two.

Thomas wrote songs and played guitar for a San Antonio band, The Blue Heelers (named for the breed of dog), in the 1990s. Although the band was not signed to a record label, it self-produced an album, Twister. Thomas continued to write and record songs. In 1998, his song "Truckstop Coffee" (recorded with the Blue Heelers) appeared on V2's soundtrack for Niagara, Niagara .^[7] In 2003, Thomas and Nikki Sudden collaborated on the music for Mika Kaurismäki's film Honey Baby, which featured four original songs written and performed by Thomas as the fictional musician Tom Brackett.^[8] An album was in the works, but Sudden died unexpectedly in 2006.^[9]

Thomas married actress Marie Zielcke on May 10, 2004. They had a daughter. The couple were divorced in 2007. Thomas also has two children with his third wife Annalee Fery,^{[10] [5]} and in 2014 moved to Wilsonville, Oregon.^{[11] [12]} Thomas and Fery separated during an unspecified point in time. He is currently dating actress India Eisley.^[13]

• VH1's "100 Greatest Kid Stars"
• 2005, ranked #4, E!'s "50 Cutest Child Stars All Grown-up"
• 2013, inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 387–388.

• Yahoo! Role Recall:Henry Thomas remembers teary E.T. audition
• Henry Thomas audition for E.T.: "Ok kid, you got the job" on YouTube
• Henry Thomas at IMDb
• Henry Thomas discography at Discogs

• American male child actors
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• Living people
• Male actors from San Antonio
• Musicians from San Antonio
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American musicians
• 21st-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male musicians
• People from Wilsonville, Oregon
• 1971 births

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• Use mdy dates from July 2022
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