Biography
Who is C. Thomas Howell?
Early life
C. Thomas Howell was born Christopher Thomas Howell on December 7, 1966, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, United States. His parents were Christopher N. And Candice Howell, and he grew up alongside three siblings. His father worked as a stunt coordinator and a rodeo performer, which inspired a young C. To start out as a child stunt performer and rodeo star. When he was young, his parents divorced.
He attended Saugus High School in California, where he eventually graduated in 1984. Before launching his film career, he appeared in commercials and acted in the situation comedy television series The Brian Keith Show.
How C. became famous
In 1982, C. Thomas Howell made his feature film debut with a supporting role as Tyler in Steven Spielberg's science fiction film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Just a year later, at age fifteen, he secured his breakout role in Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders. He played the lead character of Ponyboy Curtis alongside an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze.
His memorable portrayal of the soulful greaser earned him a Young Artist Award and turned the coming-of-age feature into a cult classic. Following this major success, he landed starring roles in several motion pictures throughout the mid-1980s, including Tank, Red Dawn, and The Hitcher.
Career highlights
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, C. Thomas Howell maintained a steady acting career across film and television. He appeared in the historical drama Gettysburg in 1993 and portrayed Baby Face Nelson in the biographical film of the same name in 1995. On television, he played Detective Frank Kohanek on the Fox horror series Kindred: The Embraced and Dr. Alex Kennedy on the syndicated show Amazon.
Later in his career, he took on a recurring and later main role as Officer Bill Dewey Dudek on the NBC and TNT crime drama series Southland from 2009 to 2013. He also began releasing music professionally under the name Tommy Howell, issuing his debut single 'Rose Hill' in 2022 and his first full-length album American Storyteller in 2023.
Personal life
In the 1980s, C. Thomas Howell dated actress Kyle Richards. He later married actress Rae Dawn Chong in 1989 after they co-starred in the film Soul Man, though the two divorced the following year. In 1992, he married his second wife, Sylvie Anderson, with whom he shared three children before she filed for divorce in 2016.
In November 2001, he faced legal trouble after a confrontation with a skateboarder in Southern California. He was subsequently acquitted of five misdemeanor charges, which had included hit and run and brandishing a weapon.
Birthday and age
C. Thomas Howell was born on December 7, 1966, which makes C. 59 years old today. That birthday falls under the Sagittarius sign. C. shares the date with 25 other famous people.
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