Heather Thomas gained fame for her portrayal of Jody Banks in the 1980s television series The Fall Man. She famously gave up acting in the 1990s and disappeared briefly from the public eye until accepting a new role in the 2010s.
Gladdy Lou Ryder, a special education teacher in Greenwich, Connecticut, gave birth to Thomas in September 1957. After she was admitted into the UCLA Theatre programme to pursue acting, she moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles.
She had a few parts under her belt prior to graduating in 1980. One of them was Co-Ed Fever, a television programme that was significantly cancelled soon after the premiere. She portrayed Sandi, a student at a college that was once exclusively for girls before allowing boys to enrol as well. Once the National Lampoon series became successful, the show was created to capitalise on the public’s interest in college comedy. Due of the low viewership and numerous complaints, it was cancelled.
Her first prominent performance was in the TV series The Fall Man. Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who doubled as a bounty hunter in the series, was the main character. Jody Banks, one of his fellow stunt performers who occasionally accompanied him and assisted him on various cases, was portrayed by Heather Thomas.
Thomas appeared in every one of the show’s 112 episodes during the course of its five seasons on television. The five-year run of the show was a success, and it even inspired comic novels and computer games. Even a new show named Trauma Center, which crossovered with an episode of The Fall Man, was introduced and gained popularity because to it.
She also played her first movie part in Zapped!, a film about high school students who are gifted telekinetic abilities and use them to exact revenge on their bullies. In Cyclone, a 1984 movie about a woman who had to convey a top-secret government motorcycle across the nation after her husband, who was meant to deliver it, was slain, she got her first leading role.
Until she stopped acting in the late 1990s, the majority of her brief film career consisted of low budget action and thrillers. Her last leading role was in the movie Hidden Obsession, which was about a TV news presenter who was being followed while on holiday by a serial killer who mostly targeted strippers.
She played Nadine in the independent movie Girltrash: All Night Long in 2014, which was her first acting role in almost 20 years. The main focus of the movie is a band that wants to take part in the Battle of the Bands in Los Angeles but faces numerous obstacles in order to arrive in time. It received recognition for both best music and best feature film at two different film festivals. Since then, Thomas has ceased acting.
Thomas has been quite outspoken about his decision to stop acting since the late 1990s. She attracted much of male attention and was a pinup girl in Hollywood. She had a number of stalkers, and she revealed to reporters that she had more than 45 active restraining orders at one time. She made the decision to put her family first and leave the spotlight at the moment because she and her husband Harry Marcus Brittenham had a growing family.
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Shortly after, she changed her career to writing. Although she claims that none of her film or television scripts have been produced yet, she has written both. In 2009, she even released a book titled Trophies. The story in the novel centres on a trophy wife who violates the unwritten rules of other wives by interfering with another’s charitable endeavours. As her husband abandons her and leaves her penniless, her friends turn into foes, and she is forced to fight her way out of poverty.
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Trophies is all about the A-listers of Hollywood and the charity circuit, which Heather Thomas and her husband play a significant role in. Thomas serves on the boards of the Rape Foundation and the Amazon Conservation Team, and the couple hosts monthly charity breakfasts at their home. She is also quite involved in politics, backing a number of Democratic politicians and being a vocal feminist.
The majority of the time, Thomas keeps a low profile, but she still actively participates in fundraisers and works to bring attention to a variety of causes. You can frequently see Thomas signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans at conventions.