C. Thomas Howell
Christopher Thomas Howell born December 7 1966 usually credited as C Thomas Howell is an American actor and film director He starred in the films The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis and in The Hitcher as Jim Halsey He has appeared in Soul Man Red Dawn Secret Admirer Gettysburg H G Wells War of the Worlds The Day the Earth Stopped and Gods and Generals Howell was born in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles to Christopher N and Candice Howell He has three siblings His father worked as a stunt coordinator and rodeo performer He played the role of the Red Knight in Terry Gilliams The Fisher King As a young boy Howell wanted to be a stuntman and was a child stunt performer He was also a rodeo star When Howell was young his parents divorced Howell graduated from Saugus High School in 1984 In 1982 Howell made his film debut as Tyler in Steven Spielbergs ET the ExtraTerrestrial At the age of 15 in 1981 Howell was cast in Francis Ford Coppolas The Outsiders 1983 Howell played the lead role of Ponyboy Curtis the soulful tagalong greaser through whose eyes we see the events of the 1960sset film unfold Based on SE Hintons bestselling 1967 novel of the same namethe comingofage film went on to become a cult classic Howells portrayal of Ponyboy was his breakthrough role and it earned him a Young Artist Award In 1984 Howell and his Outsiders costar Patrick Swayze reunited for Grandview USA and Red Dawn Howell also had a pivotal role in Tank 1984 In 1985 he starred in Secret Admirer After filming The Outsiders Howell costarred in his own television series Two Marriages which ended after four episodes but letters of support got it back on air He later expressed disappointment in the series Howell was one of two final actors in the running for the lead role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future 1985 the other was Eric Stoltz Ultimately Michael J Fox was cast as Marty after Stoltz was deemed wrong for the part In 1986 Howell was a hitchhikers target in the film The Hitcher He also starred in the sequel which was released in 2003 In 1986 Howell starred in Soul Man a film in which Howell appears in Blackface Rounding out the 1980s Howell played the young Arturo Toscanini in Franco Zeffirellis 1988 film Young Toscanini
Show MoreCredits
Movies and TV shows featuring C. Thomas Howell
Comments (0)