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Although undoubtedly linked forever to the role of the somewhat naïve would-be writer John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons (and its spin-off TV movies), Richard Thomas has had a richly diverse career that has encompassed stage, screen and television. Born June 13, 1951, Thomas’ parents were both dancers with the New York City Ballet and owners of the New York School of Ballet. He began his career as a juvenile performer, making his Broadway debut at age seven as John Roosevelt, one of the children of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, in the award-winning play Sunrise at Campobello in 1958. The wide-eyed, sensitive-looking Thomas soon found himself very much in demand for the ever-growing world of television drama. He was seen in the distinguished company of Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, and Hume Cronyn in a 1959 television presentation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; in late 1959 he appeared in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of A Christmas Tree. He then moved to work on daytime television, appearing in the ABC soap opera Flame in the Wind/A Time for Us and the CBS sudser As the World Turns. In 1971, Thomas was cast as John-Boy Walton opposite Patricia Neal in the Earl Hamner-scripted TV movie The Homecoming. Though there would be a number of cast changes before The Homecoming became the weekly series The Waltons, Thomas was retained as John-Boy, the oldest child of a rural Virginia family coping with the effects of the Depression. He brought a warm, eager-to-please charm to the role which earned him an Emmy Award in 1973; he remained in the role until only a few months before the series’ cancellation in 1981. Thomas subsequently went on to appear in a variety of TV movies and specials, notably playing the leading character of Paul Baumer in the 1979 remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, the title role in Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story, a scheming and sanctimonious evangelist in Glory! Glory! for HBO, the lover of a man who has died from AIDS in Andre’s Mother on PBS, and a threatening ex-convict in Down, Out & Dangerous on USA. After making his film debut as Joanne Woodward’s son in Winning, Thomas went on to earn praise for his leading performances as an inexperienced youth in both Frank Perry’s Last Summer and in Red Sky at Morning. His on-screen presence was diverse, from an unpleasant, psychologically disturbed character in You’ll Like My Mother to a James Dean-obsessed youth mourning his idol’s death in 9/30/55 to a space warrior in Battle Beyond the Stars, a film exploiting the popularity of Star Wars-style movies. But his filmmaking found its deepest roots and fullest expression in the made-for-TV genre: Thomas has starred in more than 40 films for television, on practically every network and premium channel. Working through his own Melpomene Productions, Thomas has continued to seek out creative challenges into the new century. In 1980, Thomas made his first Broadway appearance in over two decades as the paralyzed protagonist of Whose Life is It Anyway?, co-authored by playwright Reginald Rose, of TWELVE ANGRY MEN fame. In 1985, he won much praise for his title role in The Count of Monte Cristo in Washington, D.C., and in 2000 he appeared on the London stage in a production of Art. Before being tapped to star as Juror #8 in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s touring production of TWELVE ANGRY MEN, he had appeared on Broadway in Michael Frayn’s Democracy in 2004, followed by As You Like It in Central Park in July of 2005, and in 2005 in the Roundabout’s Broadway production of Richard Greenberg’s A Naked Girl on the Appian Way.
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