Where Are They Now

Updated: 3/04/2007

Name: Richard Thomas

Born: June 13, 1951 in New York, New York

Claim To Fame: I bet 99 people out of 100 would know Richard for his portrayal of John-Boy in the 1970s TV series 'The Waltons.'

Family Life: Georgiana Bischoff (November 1994 - present) 2 children
Alma Gonzales (February 1975 - 1993) (divorced) 4 children

He and Alma had one son and triplet daughters; and he and Georgiana have one son and one daughter.

Info: 'The Waltons' was based on the real-life of writer Earl Hamner Jr. Richard won an Emmy for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series in 1972

Trivia: His parents were both dancers with the New York City Ballet and were owners of the New York School of Ballet.

He first acted professionally at age seven; appeared as a cast replacement on the Broadway stage as John Roosevelt, one of the children of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, in drama "Sunrise at Campobello."

Is National Chairman of the Better Hearing Institute.

Served as the host of the University of South Carolina's Ecumenical Service of the Family and introduced His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

Uses two tiny hearing aids due to the 50% hearing loss, as a result of otosclerosis (a nerve disorder).

Speaks some Chinese, after changing his major at Columbia from Literature to Chinese. He changed his major from Literature to Chinese because he attended Columbia during the time that the Vietnam War was underway and as well as the controversy surrounding it. He was frustrated with the anti-war demonstrations and how they were interrupting his educations and he felt the best way to avoid such disturbances was to change his major to Chinese.

Where Is He Now: In 2006 Thomas began a national tour of Reginald Rose's acclaimed play, "Twelve Angry Men" along with George Wendt ("Norm" of "Cheers" fame) at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut. In this production he played the pivotal role of Juror Eight, opposite Wendt as Juror One.

He can also be heard providing the voiceover for recent Mercedes-Benz commercials.