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 Gilliam’s 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 Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
At the age of 15 in 1981, Howell was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders (1983). Howell played the lead role of Ponyboy Curtis, “the soulful tagalong greaser through whose eyes we see the events of the 1960s-set film unfold.” Based on S.E. Hinton’s bestselling 1967 novel of the same name,the coming-of-age film went on to become a cult classic. Howell’s portrayal of Ponyboy was his breakthrough role, and it earned him a Young Artist Award.
In 1984, Howell and his Outsiders co-star Patrick Swayze reunited for Grandview, U.S.A. and Red Dawn. Howell also had a pivotal role in Tank (1984). In 1985, he starred in Secret Admirer. After filming The Outsiders, Howell co-starred 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 hitchhiker’s 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 Zeffirelli’s 1988 film Young Toscanini.
2005 • TV
2013 • TV
2010 • TV
2010 • TV
1982 • Movie
1985 • Movie
as Tyler
as Michael Ryan
as Kenneth Bianchi
as Ponyboy Curtis
as Clayton Connelly
as Chief Grasso
as Sheriff Beaumont
as Mark Goddard
as Sanchez Boon
as Malcolm 'Mack' Maddox
as Jim Halsey
as Michael Archer
as Preston Webb
as Robert
as Jenner Brading
as LIttle Joe
as Addison Terrill
as Billy
as Tim Pearson
as John Youngstown
Director
Director
Director
Director
Producer
Director
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Executive Producer
as The Reaper / George Foyet
7 episodes
as Earl Fagen
2 episodes
as Roy
2 episodes
as Hilltop Resident
1 episodes
as John Campbell
1 episodes
as Barry Landes
2 episodes
as Alex Polanski
1 episodes
as Martin Cordova
1 episodes
as Agent Frank Eagan
1 episodes
as Weston Steward
5 episodes
as Camden Driggs
1 episodes
as Ash Spenser
12 episodes
as Louis Degner
3 episodes
as Vincent Jansen
1 episodes
as Warden Sturgill Hardly
1 episodes
as Vasil
1 episodes
as Anders
3 episodes
as Officer Dewey Dudek
14 episodes
as Carson Wolf
3 episodes
as SAC Mick Granger
1 episodes
