E.T. Actor Henry Thomas: Life, Career, Movies & FAQs

If you were a kid in the 1980s, Henry Thomas was the face of a feeling you couldn’t quite name: the lonely boy who found a friend, and then had to let him go. Decades later, people still ask what happened to him, how old he was in E.T., and whether he ever escaped that one role. Here’s what the record actually shows, without the nostalgia filter.

Born: September 9, 1971 (IMDb biography database) ·
Breakthrough: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (TCM film database) ·
Status: Active actor (Biography.com profile) ·
Known for: Elliott Taylor (IMDb filmography page)

One pattern runs through his entire bio: a child star who did not fade, but kept working. These are the facts that anchor that story.

What is Henry Thomas doing now?

Henry Thomas is still acting. His recent credits include The Fall of the House of Usher, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, and The Midnight Club, according to his IMDb filmography page.

• Recent television and film roles: The Fall of the House of Usher, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, The Midnight Club (IMDb filmography page)
• Also active as a musician: he plays and sings with the Los Angeles band Farspeaker (Biography.com profile)

The implication: the actor you remember as Elliott has spent the past four decades quietly building a career in both genre TV and indie film.

What happened to Henry Thomas, actor?

The short version: he kept acting. Fandango filmography page describes his post-E.T. path as a mix of made-for-TV, independent, and mainstream projects.

Career highlights include:

• Cloak & Dagger (1984) — another teen adventure, listed in his IMDb filmography page
• Fire in the Sky (1993) — dark sci-fi
• Legends of the Fall (1994) — Samuel Ludlow
• Suicide Kings (1997) — crime thriller
• Gangs of New York (2002) — Scorsese’s epic
• Dear John (2010) — mainstream romance
• The Haunting of Hill House (2018) — Hugh Crain

Along the way, he studied at Blinn College, played in a Celtic rock band called the Blue Heelers, and collected a Texas Film Hall of Fame induction in 2013, per TV Guide celebrity database.

The pattern: he never chased the same high. Instead of trying to repeat E.T., Thomas built a resume of odd, adult roles across TV and film.

How old was Henry Thomas when he played Elliot?

He was 10 years old when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in 1982. Thomas was born on September 9, 1971, so he was still a pre-teen when the movie arrived in theaters, and TCM film database notes that the role made him an overnight star around the age of 11 in its aftermath.

• Born: September 9, 1971 (IMDb biography database)
• Film release: 1982 (IMDb filmography page)
• Overnight stardom: age 11 (TCM film database)

The catch: the “kid from E.T.” has spent more of his life as an adult actor than as a child star — 40-plus years and counting on IMDb filmography page.

How rich is Henry Thomas?

The honest answer: no reliable public figure exists. The sources reviewed here include no financial disclosure, tax record, or primary document of Henry Thomas’s net worth. The career databases that cover him — IMDb biography database, TV Guide celebrity database, and TCM film database — do not publish a net-worth figure.

• What is known: he has worked steadily since the early 1980s (IMDb filmography page)
• What is unknown: his actual earnings or current personal wealth

Is Henry Thomas still married?

There is no verified public record in the materials reviewed here that confirms who Henry Thomas is currently married to. His Biography.com profile and TV Guide celebrity database focus on his professional life, not his family court or marriage records.

• Known for certain: his major career dates and credits (IMDb biography database)
• Not established: current spouse, divorce history, or family status

The trade-off: the more a performer keeps private, the more “family” questions are answered with facts about work, not home.

E.T. questions viewers still ask: finger glow, drunk scene, the name, and the iconic line

Those questions all come back to the same 1982 film, which is listed in his IMDb filmography page as the role that started it.

The glow, the drunk scene, and the ending are connected to one tool: the psychic bond between Elliott and E.T.

• Why does E.T.’s finger glow? The film uses the glowing fingertip as visual shorthand for E.T.’s power — healing, life, and connection. The movie never spells out a scientific explanation, which is exactly why it lingers.
• Why does Elliott get drunk when E.T. drinks? The drunk scene works because Elliott and E.T. share an emotional and physical link, so E.T.’s beer sends Elliott stumbling through a school hallway.
• Did Elliott ever see E.T. again? In the movie, no. After the spaceship leaves, the famous “I’ll be right here” line is the closest the story gets to a reunion.
• What is E.T.’s actual name? The credits simply use “E.T.” The film never gives him a personal name, another reason he works as a universal character.
• What is E.T.’s iconic line? “E.T. phone home.” It is the line fans quote more than any other, and it doubles as the narrative engine of the whole film.
• Did Drew Barrymore think E.T. was real? This is the one fan story that remains hard to verify in the source set available here. Barrymore has told the anecdote in press over the years, but the exact “she believed it completely” version belongs more to memory than to the script.

What is E.T.’s race?

The film does not specify E.T.’s species or race; E.T. is simply an alien from another planet.

The point: the power of E.T. doesn’t come from a species name or a scientific explanation — it comes from the bond Elliott and E.T. share.

Confirmed facts vs. what’s still unclear

Confirmed facts

• He was born Henry Jackson Thomas Jr. on September 9, 1971, in San Antonio, Texas (TCM film database)
• He leads E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and won a Young Artist Award (IMDb biography database)
• He was nominated for Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Saturn awards for E.T. (IMDb biography database)
• He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1997) (IMDb filmography page)
• He was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2013 (TV Guide celebrity database)
• His post-E.T. career spans TV, independent, and mainstream films (Fandango filmography page)

What’s still unclear

• A verifiable net-worth figure, because no primary financial source appears in any record reviewed
• His current marital status, which is not confirmed by official or public records
• Whether E.T.’s species has a name, since the film never says
• Whether Drew Barrymore fully believed E.T. was real on set
• Whether Elliott ever saw E.T. again after the final sequence
• Why so much of Thomas’s personal life stays out of mainstream databases

Words that stuck

“E.T. phone home.”

E.T., from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the film listed on IMDb filmography page

“Kid, you got the job.”

Steven Spielberg, recalling Henry Thomas’s E.T. audition, as told in TV Guide celebrity database

The takeaway: the boy who let E.T. go

Henry Thomas’s story is not a tragedy or a comeback arc. It is a long, mostly uninterrupted working career that began with a lucky meeting and kept going because he chose projects that interested him rather than ones that repeated E.T. The last scene of the movie asks you to believe in impossible goodbyes; the real aftermath, at least for Thomas, looks like a steady back catalogue of strange and serious roles. For young actors in Hollywood today, the lesson is clear: build a body of work beyond the breakout role, or let one film’s glow define you.

Frequently asked questions