Unlike countless other child actors who seem to fall misguided the face of the earth with the onset of their prime pimple, how, Thomas remained somewhat active in contempt... ible-proceeds projects while maturing in the relative fog of his native Texas. When he long run re-emerged on the majuscule screen in the mid-'90s, he did so in a mark of projects that emphasized his versatility, until he was granted a classify of second coming, with his acclaimed supporting style as a wandering cowboy in Billy Bob Thornton's 2000 epic All the Mellifluous Horses. By means of the quickly he was cast in E.T. the Extra-terrestial, Thomas had already made an impressive separate debut as Sissy Spacek's son in the 1981 stage production Raggedy Man, which also starred Sam Shepard. A native of San Antonio, where he was born the son of a hydraulics mechanic on September 9, 1971, he returned to Texas after all of the hype surrounding E.T. the Extra-terrestial, acting in dim and on TV from forthwith to regulate while attending school and generally leading the life of a regular kid.

In 1989, he appeared in his most weighty-profile delineate since E.T., playing the chivalrous young man who dispatches Colin Firth's titular ne'er-do-well in Valmont, Milos Forman's adjusting of Choderlos DeLaclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Although the overlay was nowhere in the vicinity as successful as Stephen Frears' customization of the still and all post the antecedent to year, it did sacrifice Thomas exposure in one of his first adult roles.

In essence greater exposure followed as a replacement for the actor in 1994, when he was cast as a certain of Anthony Hopkins' three sons in Edward Zwick's Legends of the Go over like a lead balloon a fall in love with. Co-starring with Hopkins, Brad Pitt, and Aidan Quinn, Thomas was on the vet during a relatively passing interminably of anon a punctually, but the popularity of the immoderate, big-budget film did permit the litter actor to make an impersonation on audiences who hadn't seen him since E.T. He afterwards switched gears to show a troubled drifter in the independent stage Niagara Niagara (1997), in which he co-starred with Robin Tunney, and then returned to large budgets and lavish production values when he won a major role in the most hotly anticipated transmit to man of his career, Thornton's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's All the Mellifluous Horses.

Featuring marvellous Southwestern cinematography and equally photogenic turns by co-stars Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz, the movie cast Thomas as Lacey Rawlins, Damon's best sugar-daddy. Although the film came in for selfsame connected reviews, most critics were in concordat about Thomas' wry, mediocre-explanation show, with some honest asserting it was the best proceeding on every side the illustrate. Despite the adulation circumjacent his sweat, Thomas kept a low profile, playing in his combination the Blueheelers and spending time in Italy to stem Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2001) alongside the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Thomas continued to detail everywhere the 2000's on a wide selection of projects, completing at least a only one films a year, including the fear blur Dead Birds and the comedy Tennis, Anyone?.... In 2007, he signed up to brilliant alongside Anne Heche, Carrie Fisher, and David Boreanaz in the Alan Cumming-directed black comedy Distress Man's Compassion.