Personal life

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

Career

Acting career

Aged nine, Thomas had already been in one film, Raggedy Man, when he auditioned for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He won the part by giving a genuinely tearful performance, during which he had drawn upon the 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.

After E.T., 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.

His most prominent adult role to date was as "Samuel Ludlow" in Legends of the Fall (1994). In 2002, he starred as supporting character Johnny Sirocco in the Martin Scorsese 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 Kaurismäki'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.

Awards and honors

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

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Raggedy Man	Harry, Jr.	Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Elliott	Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film Nominated—BAFTA Film Award for Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Nominated—Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
1984	Misunderstood	Andrew
1984	Cloak & Dagger	Davey Osborne	Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film
1986	Frog Dreaming	Cody
1988	Murder One	Billy Isaacs
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
1996	Bombshell	Buck Hogan
1997	Hijacking Hollywood	Kevin
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	Briar Patch	Edgar MacBeth
2003	11:14	Jack
2003	Honey Baby	Tom
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
2009	Don't Look Up	Josh Petri
2009	Sweet Flame	Bill
2010	Dear John	Tim
2012	The Last Ride	Mr. Wells / Hank Williams
2013	Big Sur	Philip Whalen
2016	Ouija 2		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid	The Kid	TV movie
1990	Psycho IV: The Beginning	Young Norman Bates	TV movie
1992	A Taste for Killing	Cary Sloan	TV movie
1994	Beyond Obsession	John Thompson	TV movie
1995	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Ray Buckey	TV movie Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
1996	Riders of the Purple Sage	Bern Venters	TV movie
1998	Moby Dick	Ishmael	TV movie
1999	Happy Face Murders	Dylan McCarthy	TV movie
2005	Masters of Horror	Jamie	Episode: "Chocolate"
2006	Desperation	Peter Jackson	TV movie
2007-2008	Without a Trace	Franklin Romar	2 episodes
2009	CSI	Jeremy Kent	Episode: "If I Had a Hammer"
2011	The Mentalist	Thomas Lisbon	Episode: "Where in the World is Carmine O'Brien?"
2013-2014	Betrayal	T.J. Karsten	Series regular
2015	Sons of Liberty	John Adams	Miniseries

Charities

Henry Thomas supports the following charitable cause: Children.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]