Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. is an American actor and musician. He has appeared in over 40 films and is best known for his role as Elliott Taylor in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Cloak & Dagger, Gangs of New York and as a young Norman Bates in Psycho IV: The Be...
Marie Zielcke (m. 2004–2007), Kelley Hill (m. 2000–2002)
Children
Hazel Thomas
Parents
Carolyn L. Thomas, Henry Jackson Thomas
Nicknames
Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr , The Little Thomas
Awards
Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film (1982), "100 Greatest Kid Stars" (VH1's), "50 Cutest Child Stars All Grown-up" (2005, ranked #4 "E!'s")
Music Groups
The Blue Heelers
Nominations
BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor/Best Supporting Actor (1982, 1995), Saturn Award for Best Actor
Movies
Raggedy Man (1981), Cloak & Dagger (1984), Misunderstood(1984), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Fire in the Sky (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Suicide Kings (1997), Honey Baby, All the Pretty Horses (2000), Gangs of New York (2002)
TV Shows
"Without a Trace" (2007-2008), "Betrayal" (1983), "Sons of Liberty" (2015), "Ouija: Origin of Evil" (2016), "Gerald's Game" (2017)
It's really important to go back to where you come from.
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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.
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The idea of a film staying in theaters for a year is something of a fantasy today.
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The one thing I've always done is to try not to over complicate anything.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I probably complicate things unnecessarily now just to give the illusion of professionalism.
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I have horses, I drive a truck, and I wear cowboy boots. First I'm a Texan.
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Carloads of tourists would photograph the family mailbox, and there was weird mail, death threats.
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Even if I had a tuxedo I wouldn't wear it to school.
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I can't stay in L.A. too long or it starts to grow on me in a bad way.
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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.
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I think it's great when girls are artistic.
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I was getting a lot of hassles from the public. Everybody recognized me.
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I've got a lot of crazy plans.
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If I can generate enough income, I'd like to get a castle, a historic castle that I can restore.
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Fact
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(1996-) Producing and making films.
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Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 7, 2013 in Austin, Texas.
Filed for legal separation from wife Marie Zielcke in May 2007.
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He and his wife, Marie Zielcke, have a daughter named Hazel Thomas.
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The only child of Carolyn, a homemaker, and Henry Sr., a hydraulic machinist.
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At an open audition in a San Antonio, Texas hotel he promptly landed a part in the 1981 Sissy Spacek film Raggedy Man (1981).
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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.
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He dropped out of Texas's Blinn College (where he studied philosophy and history) after one year to act full-time.
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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.
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Was turned down for the role of Eric Bates in The Toy (1982). The role went to Scott Schwartz.
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Was ranked #4 in E's 50 cutest child stars all grown-up. [2005]
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His wife, Marie Zielcke, is a popular actress in Germany.
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The godfather of his daughter Hazel is Mika Kaurismäki. He was the one who introduced him to his future wife Marie Zielcke.
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Married Marie Zielcke in Las Vegas in the same Chapel in which Britney Spears married Jason Allen Alexander.
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Ranked #24 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars".
$1.5 Million
