Biography
Date of Birth
9 December 1971, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Birth Name
Henry Jackson Thomas Jr.
Nickname
The Little Thomas
Height
5' 11" (1.8 m)
Mini Biography
Henry Jackson Thomas Jr. is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and had a lead role 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 films like Cloak & Dagger (1984), 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).
Trivia
Performs with the band The Blueheelers.
Attended Blinn College in Brenham, Texas.
Ranked #24 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars".
Married Marie Zielcke in Las Vegas in the same Chapel in which Britney Spears married Jason Allen Alexander.
The godfather of his daughter Hazel is Mika Kaurismäki. He was the one who introduced him to his future wife Marie Zielcke.
His wife, Marie Zielcke, is a popular actress in Germany.
Was ranked #4 in E's 50 cutest child stars all grown-up. [2005]
Was turned down for the role of Eric Bates in The Toy (1982). The role went to Scott Schwartz.
He was originally cast in the four-hour miniseries, Merlin (1998), but when Thomas arrived at London's Heathrow Airport, much to the actor's surprise, he was informed that his official working papers were not in order, apparently the result of an administrative mess up back home, and he was denied entrance to the country. His reps called the incident an "unfortunate misunderstanding," adding that her client "did not do anything illegal." Be that as it may, Thomas was dropped from the Merlin (1998) cast and subsequently replaced by actor Paul Curran.
He dropped out of Texas's Blinn College (where he studied philosophy and history) after one year to act full-time.
He said that at age 8, he wanted to become an actor after watching a PBS special on acting and decided he had found his calling.
At an open audition in a San Antonio, Texas hotel he promptly landed a part in the 1981 Sissy Spacek film Raggedy Man (1981).
The only child of Carolyn, a homemaker, and Henry Sr., a hydraulic machinist.
He and his wife, Marie Zielcke, have a daughter named Hazel Thomas.
Filed for legal separation from wife Marie Zielcke in May 2007.
Met Marie Zielcke on the set of Honey Baby (2004).
Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 7, 2013 in Austin, Texas.
(1996-) Producing and making films.
He was considered for the role of Norman Bates in Psycho (1998) before Vince Vaughn was cast. He had previously played Bates as a teenager in Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990).
Though he played her younger brother on The Mentalist (2008), he is nine months older than Robin Tunney.
Trademarks:
Frequently works with Mike Flanagan
Quotes
If I can generate enough income, I'd like to get a castle, a historic castle that I can restore.
I've got a lot of crazy plans.
I was getting a lot of hassles from the public. Everybody recognized me.
I think it's great when girls are artistic.
I don't know if there aren't any films like 'E.T.' anymore. I just feel that the industry has changed so much. There are so many outlets now.
I can't stay in L.A. too long or it starts to grow on me in a bad way.
Even if I had a tuxedo I wouldn't wear it to school.
Carloads of tourists would photograph the family mailbox, and there was weird mail, death threats.
I have horses, I drive a truck, and I wear cowboy boots. First I'm a Texan.
I probably complicate things unnecessarily now just to give the illusion of professionalism.
Of course there have been times I regretted being the kid in 'E.T.' My world went completely crazy. I was that stupid kind of famous, where you can't go anywhere.
It was like that for the first six months after 'E.T.' was in cinemas. I'd go out and get mobbed. I was a shy kid, and being approached by adults all the time just freaked me out.
I would inevitably get the girls who were interested in me because I was the guy from E.T. It was kind of tough. I can't deny ever capitalizing upon it but on the whole in my teens I was pretty virtuous.
I understood why films were made, and if they made a lot of money, they were successful. All of these things I knew. As a ten-year-old boy, I didn't really think a lot about finances or celebrity. I always viewed films as kind of what I imagined a summer camp to be like.
I grew up in a rural area, I was from kind of a poor family and my parents weren't showbiz people. But going back was strange, and perhaps stranger for the other students.
I don't know if I was so much of an outsider until after I started doing films. That put me on the outside. I grew up in Texas, and I wasn't the child of industry parents, and I didn't have a lot of friends in the industry or anything like that.
The one thing I've always done is to try not to over complicate anything.
The idea of a film staying in theaters for a year is something of a fantasy today.
Many times you walk into a room and people have already made up their minds. But it's always good to have something great associated with you.
It's really important to go back to where you come from.
It's harder to laugh than to cry.
[on working with Milos Forman on Valmont (1989)] Milos was great. I was frightened of him as well. This was during the days before video assist, so there was no playback. Milos would sit directly underneath the lens of the camera and he habitually smoked two cigars a day. He carried them in a little leather case in his front pocket. But when he would watch you underneath the camera, you couldn't help but notice him. It was kinda distracting at first because he was so into it: his face would come alive after he would call action. He really hated to be on set. He loved to be in the editing room and he wasn't very kind to actors. His demeanor on set was very gruff. He wanted it his way and that was it. If you could deliver that without too much hassle, then it was no big deal. But it was great. He's a brilliant director and I was so sad to hear of his passing.
