Richard Earl Thomas (born June 13, 1951) is an American actor. He is best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama The Waltons, for which he won an Emmy Award, received a nomination for another[1] and two Golden Globe Awards.[2] He also starred in the miniseries adaption of Stephen King's It and played Special Agent Frank Gaad on FX's spy thriller series The Americans.
Early life and education
Thomas was born in Manhattan, the son of Barbara Fallis and Richard S. Thomas, in 1951.[citation needed] His parents were dancers with the New York City Ballet and owned the New York School of Ballet.[3]
Thomas has a nevus on his left cheek. He has stated that this led to his being turned down for a role in a television commercial in his youth.[4]
He was a student at Columbia College, the undergraduate college of Columbia University, where he majored in Chinese before switching to the English department.[5] After he landed the role in The Waltons, he left Columbia during his junior year because he had to commit to the role full-time in Los Angeles.[6][7]
Acting career
Thomas at age 10 in 1, 2, 3, Go
In 1958, at age seven, Thomas made his Broadway debut in Sunrise at Campobello.[3] In 1959, he appeared in the Hallmark Hall of Fame NBC television presentation of Ibsen's A Doll's House with Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, and Hume Cronyn.[8] He then began acting in daytime TV. He appeared in soap operas such as The Edge of Night (as Ben Schultz, 1961), A Flame in the Wind, and As the World Turns (as Tom Hughes, 1966–67), which were broadcast from his native Manhattan. In 1970, he was in a leading role in NBC's Bonanza in an episode called "The Weary Willies".
Thomas received his first major film roles, appearing in Winning (1969) with Paul Newman, about auto racing,[9] and Last Summer (also 1969) with Bruce Davison and Barbara Hershey, a summer coming-of-age movie.[10] He starred in the Universal Pictures/Hal Wallis Production Red Sky at Morning (1971).[11] Thomas played the lead role of 1971's Cactus in the Snow, an independent film which is hard, if not impossible, to find or buy via VHS, DVD or any other format. It is considered a lost film.[citation needed]
Thomas on the set of The Waltons, 1973
Thomas became internationally recognized for his portrayal of John "John-Boy" Walton, Jr., in the 1970s TV series The Waltons, which was based on the life story of writer Earl Hamner, Jr. He appeared in the CBS television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971),[12] which inspired the commissioning of the otherwise largely recast series, and then played the role continuously in 122 episodes until March 17, 1977. Thomas left the series and his role was taken over by Robert Wightman, but Thomas returned to the role in three Waltons TV movies, 1993–97. (The first was A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion in 1993.[13]) Thomas won an Emmy for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series in 1973.[14]
Thomas played against type as murderer and rapist Kenneth Kinsolving in You'll Like My Mother (1972), opposite Patty Duke.[15] He played the lead roles of Private Henry Fleming in the NBC TV movie The Red Badge of Courage (1974),[16] and Paul Baumer in the 1979 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie on CBS All Quiet on the Western Front (1979).[17]
In other TV films, he played Col. Warner's younger son Jim in Roots: The Next Generations (1979, the sequel to Roots);[18] the title role in the biopic Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story (1983);[19] Will Mossup in Hobson's Choice (CBS, 1983);[20] Henry Durie in The Master of Ballantrae for Hallmark Hall of Fame;[21] Martin Campbell in Final Jeopardy;[22] and the adult Bill Denbrough in Stephen King's It (1990).[23]
In 1980, Thomas made his first Broadway appearance in more than 12 years when he was a replacement in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July.[24] In 1980, he appeared as Shad, the young farmer entrusted to employ mercenaries to save his planet from Sador and his invading forces, in Battle Beyond the Stars.[25]
In 1987, he appeared on stage in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, in the one-man tour-de-force Citizen Tom Paine, playing Paine "like a star-spangled tiger, ferocious about freedom and ready to savage anyone who stands in his way," in a staging of Howard Fast's play in the bicentennial year of the United States Constitution.[26] In 1990, he joined Nathan Lane at the Mark Taper Forum[27] in Los Angeles for Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata in the role of Stephan. In 1993, he played the title role in a Shakespeare Theater (Washington, DC) stage production of Richard II.[28]
Thomas starred with Maureen O'Hara and Annette O'Toole in the Hallmark Channel movie The Christmas Box in 1995. O'Toole and Thomas had starred in It together five years earlier.[29]
Thomas appeared in a quartet of performances at the Hartford Stage in Connecticut: Hamlet (1987),[30] Peer Gynt (1989), Richard III (1994), and Tiny Alice (1996). In 1997 and 1998, he played Joe Greene in two episodes of Touched by an Angel.[citation needed]
In 2001, he appeared in London's West End in a theater production of Yasmina Reza's Art with Judd Hirsch;[31] on the New York stage in The Public Theater's production in Central Park of As You Like It (2005);[32] Michael Frayn's Democracy on Broadway (2004)[33] and the Primary Stages' off-Broadway production of Terrence McNally's The Stendhal Syndrome (2004).[34]
He hosted the PAX TV series It's a Miracle.[35] He starred in the series Just Cause in 2003 for the PAX TV network.[citation needed]
Thomas with singer Stacey Robinson in 2014
In 2006, Thomas began an American theater tour of Reginald Rose's play Twelve Angry Men, along with George Wendt at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, playing the pivotal role of Juror Eight opposite Wendt's Juror One.[36]
In 2009–2010, Thomas was featured on Broadway in Race, a play by David Mamet. The production was directed by Mamet and included James Spader, David Alan Grier, and Kerry Washington.[37] In February and March 2011, he starred at the Off-Broadway New York Public Theater in Timon of Athens.[38]
Thomas had a supporting role in the FX Network Cold War drama The Americans, which debuted in January 2013.[39] He played Frank Gaad, an FBI counterintelligence investigator.[3]
Thomas appeared in the 2017 Broadway revival of The Little Foxes, and was nominated for a 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.[40]
In December 2018, Thomas portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in Pittsburgh CLO's production of A Musical Christmas Carol.[41]
In February 2021, Thomas portrayed Bodie Lord in the Amazon series Tell Me Your Secrets, appearing in episode 5.
