Richard Thomas

Richard Earl Thomas was born on 13 June 1951 in Manhattan, New York into a show business family of unusually varied heritage. His parents, Barbara Fallis and Richard S. Thomas, were both dancers who founded the New York School of Ballet. His father was from Paintsville, Kentucky and Richard Thomas has described himself as "of English, Welsh, German, Scottish, and Irish descent." The Welsh thread in that heritage runs through his father's Kentucky line, tracing back to the Welsh emigrants who moved from the Eastern seaboard into Appalachia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Thomas made his Broadway debut at the age of seven - an extraordinary start to a career that would span more than six decades. He studied at Columbia University, where he changed his major from Literature to Chinese, a decision he later described as driven by his frustration with the disruption to campus life caused by anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. He left Columbia in his junior year when he was cast as John-Boy Walton.

The role of John "John-Boy" Walton Jr. in the CBS drama series The Waltons (1972-1981) made Richard Thomas a household name on both sides of the Atlantic. He appeared in 122 episodes as the eldest son of the Walton family, the aspiring writer in Depression-era Virginia whose warm, earnest storytelling voice narrated the series. Thomas won the Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series in 1973. The phrase "Good night, John-Boy" became a cultural phenomenon. "It'll be on my tombstone I'm sure," he has said.