Richard Thomas Filmography

Annie's Point

Synopsis: This heartwarming made-for-cable "road" picture begins in Chicago, where widowed grandmother Annie Eason (Betty White, convincingly portraying a 69-year-old while herself in her eighties!) wants to grant the final request of her husband Elliott: To release his ashes from the top of "Annie's Read More

Beyond the Prairie II: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Continues

Actors: Meredith Monroe, Walton Goggins, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Kontstantin Selivanov, Richard Thomas, Cody Linley

Synopsis: A sequel to the 2000 TV movie Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, this two-hour film chronicles the later events in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose evocative autobiographical novels also inspired the long-running TV series Little House on the Prairie. After enduring Read More

Anna's Dream

Actors: Connie Sellecca, Richard Thomas, Lindsay Felton, Cara DeLizia, Tyler Goucher

Synopsis: Lindsay Felton stars as Anna Morgan, a teenaged gymnast left paralyzed and wheelchair-bound after a fall. Anna's efforts to adjust to her situation are almost as painful as the accident which brought it about, no small thanks to the well-meaning but rather clumsy efforts by her friends and family Read More

Mississippi Mass Choir: Amazing Love

Synopsis: One of the strongest vocal ensembles on the gospel music scene, the Mississippi Mass Choir lift their voices in praise on the electrifying concert video. Director David Curry leads the choir through 13 inspiring selections, including "Lord I Thank You," "My God Said It," "Holding On (And I Won't Read More

Just Cause [TV Series]

Actors: Richard Thomas, Elizabeth Lackey, Shaun Benson, Roger R. Cross, Mark Hildreth

Synopsis: If one didn't know better, one might suspect that the weekly, 60-minute PAX Network series Just Cause was really the theatrical feature Erin Brockovich with different clothes and characters. Richard Thomas headed the cast as celebrated civil attorney Hamilton Whitney III, who maintained a suite of Read More

Bloodhounds, Inc. [TV Series]

Actors: Richard Thomas, Craig Hauer, Kendra Thomas

Synopsis: The Christian kids show Bloodhounds, Inc focuses around a couple of teenage brother-and-sister sleuths named Sean and Melissa Hunter who, together with their gang of investigators known as the Slobs, employ their skills at detective work to solve mysteries in their hometown of Midvale, always Read More

The Miracle of the Cards

Actors: Richard Thomas, Thomas Sangster, Catherine Oxenberg, Kirk Cameron, Peter Wingfield

Synopsis: The Miracle of the Cards is the true story of eight-year-old English youngster Craig Shergold (Thomas Sangster), who in 1989 is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Although the prognosis is negative, Craig's mother Marion (Catherine Oxenberg) becomes convinced that somewhere in the world there is a cure Read More

Wonder Boys

Actors: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey, Jr., Katie Holmes

Synopsis: In this comedy, a middle-aged man juggles his problems with women, literature, and a career, while a younger man chases the artifact of his dreams. Pittsburgh college professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is currently single following his divorce from his third wife; after publishing an Read More

In the Name of the People

Actors: Amy Madigan, Richard Thomas, Scott Bakula, Kimberly Warnat, Robin Ann Phipps

Synopsis: Based on a play by Tim Boland, the made-for-TV drama In the Name of the People stars Scott Bakula as death-row inmate John Burke. Facing execution for the murder of a teenaged girl, Burke's only concern is over the future of his own 13-year-old daughter Lisa (Robin Ann Phipps). Connie Murphy (Amy Madigan Read More

The Million Dollar Kid

Actors: C. Thomas Howell, Maureen McCormick, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: A young boys buys a winning lottery ticket worth $50 million and the household is turned upside down. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 3 - Invasion

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 4 - Princess

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 2 - The Island of the Gods

Big and Hairy

Actors: Robert Burke, Trevor Jones, Greg Thirloway, Richard Thomas, Chilton Crane

Synopsis: Newly arrived in the town of Cedar Island, perennial misfit Picasso Dewlap (Robert Burke) has trouble making friends, even when he joins his junior-high basketball team. But Picasso's stock with his peers rises considerably when he recruits a rather hirsute young "man" with remarkable hoop skills Read More

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 1 - Survival

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 10 - Boston

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 7 - The Treasure Hunt

Touched by an Angel: Vengeance is Mine

Synopsis: This is the first episode of a two-part story, which originally concluded on the Touched by an Angel spinoff series Promised Land. Monica (Roma Downey) and her fellow angels once again pay a visit to the family of Russell Greene (Gerald McRaney), on the one-year anniversary of the traffic accident Read More

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 9 - Paradise Lost

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 5 - Captives

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 6 - The Ghost of Raven Jones

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson: Book 8 - Star Crossed Lovers

Planet Neighborhood [Video Series]

Crew: Producer

Narrow Escape

Actors: Gerald McRaney, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Based on a true story, the sentimental TV movie A Thousand Men and a Baby takes place during the final months of the Korean War in 1953. Spiritually adopting an abandoned boy, the crew members of the U.S.S. "Point Cruz" set about to find a proper home for the infant. All the while, ship's doctor Read More

Flood: A River's Rampage

Actors: Richard Thomas, Kate Vernon, Nigel Bennett, Jan Rubes, Gabriel Hogan

Synopsis: Based on actual events from the early '90s and first aired on the Family Channel, this exciting drama centers on the attempts of one small town to keep the Mississippi river from destroying it. The leaders in this seemingly impossible quest are widower farmer Herb and the Army Corps of Engineers Read More

Touched By an Angel: Joe's Return, Part 1

Synopsis: This opening episode of Touched by an Angel's fourth season is actually the first half of a "crossover" story, with the conclusion appearing on the spinoff series Promised Land. Heavenly caseworkers Monica (Roma Downey) and Tess (Della Reese) are dispatched to the town of Chicory Creek, home of Read More

A Walton Easter

Actors: Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Jon Walmsley, Judy Norton-Taylor

Synopsis: The sixth TV-movie spinoff of the popular family series The Waltons, A Walton Easter manages to reunite all of the surviving cast members--and in so doing, unintentionally reveals why several of those performers hadn't been doing much acting recently. Throwing the orginal series' chronology to the Read More

The Christmas Box

Timepiece

Actors: Naomi Watts, Kevin Kilner, James Earl Jones, Ellen Burstyn, Mercedes Vilamil

Synopsis: This made-for-TV drama is a prequel to the 1995 feature The Christmas Box, which starred Maureen O'Hara as the formidable dowager Mary Parkin. Set in the '40s, Timepiece stars Naomi Watts as the much-younger Mary, a British transplant not yet married to her widowed boss, small-town businessman Read More

What Love Sees

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: This made-for-TV drama covers fifteen years, from WW2 to the mid-1950s, in the lives of farm couple Gordon and Jean Holly (Richard Thomas, Annabeth Gish). A daughter of privilege, Jean had married Gordon much against her parents' wishes, whereupon the couple took charge of a ranch in California Read More

Down, Out & Dangerous

Actors: Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, Cynthia Ettinger, George DiCenzo, Jason Bernard

Synopsis: In this drama, an opportunistic and dangerous ex-convict uses the untimely death of a neighbor to help him get close to the kindly businessman he hopes to destroy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

To Save the Children

Actors: Richard Thomas, Robert Urich, Wendy Crewson, Joanne Vannicola, Robert Bendarski

Synopsis: A community rallies together when a former police officer comes unglued, builds a bomb and takes hostage an entire elementary school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Death in Small Doses

Actors: Richard Thomas, Tess Harper, Glynnis O'Connor

Synopsis: Based on a well-publicized 1991 Dallas murder case, the made-for-TV Death in Small Doses begins with the death of architect Nancy Lyon (Glynnis O'Connor), who has succumbed to arsenic poisoning. The prime suspect is Nancy's frequently estranged husband Richard (Richard Lyon), who stands to collect Read More

Precious Victims

Actors: Park Overall

Synopsis: The seemingly heartbroken parents of a murdered child make a sheriff suspicious, in this made-for-television drama. Park Overall and Robby Benson star as The Sims, a couple whose infant daughter is kidnapped and later found dead. By all accounts the Sims appear to be the victims, but when another Read More

Stalking Laura

Synopsis: Based on a true story, I Can Make You Love Me: The Stalking of Laura Black largely takes place in California's Silicon Valley, where Virginia transplant Laura Black (Brooke Shields) is employed by a major high-tech firm as a computer specialist. Upset by the unsolicited advances of nerdish Read More

Linda

Actors: Virginia Madsen, Richard Thomas, Ted McGinley, Laura Harrington, T.E. Russell

Synopsis: "Her charms deceived him. Her evil betrayed him. Now only the truth can free him." The ad copy for the made-for-cable Linda only scratched the surface, but it did capture the gist of the story. Richard Thomas plays a nebbish who takes a Florida vacation with his restless wife Virginia Madsen. Read More

Wild West

Synopsis: A five-volume collection of some 3500 photos, sketches, and paintings of myths of the American West between the end of the Civil War to 1900. Includes first-person narratives, anecdotes, newspaper accounts, journals, and letters covering Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Read More

A Walton Thanksgiving

Actors: Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Ellen Corby

Synopsis: America's favorite family, now grown with kids of their own, reunites for an old-fashioned Thanksgiving. Set in the wake of JFK's assassination, the gathering provides each family member time to look back upon their lives. This heart-warming family drama marks the return of Richard Thomas to the Read More

Lincoln: The Making of a President, 1860-1862

Synopsis: A shrewd politician, Abraham Lincoln had the intelligence, ambition, and principles to grow into his job as president. This is the first of four videos in the Lincoln series, which originally aired on PBS. Produced and directed by Peter W. Kunhardt, this program is narrated by renowned actor James Read More

Lincoln: I Want to Finish This Job, 1864

Synopsis: By the third year of the Civil War, personal and national tragedy had worn down President Lincoln. However, he focused on his job tenaciously, having a strong sense of history. This is the third of four programs in the Lincoln series, which originally aired on PBS. Produced and directed by Peter Read More

Lincoln: The Pivotal Year, 1863

Synopsis: President Abraham Lincoln leads the Union in the fight to end the awful bloodshed of the Civil War. The year is 1863. The president had a continuous struggle with the commanders of his army, and the bloodshed from the fighting at Antietam and Fredericksburg distressed him greatly. 1863 was the Read More

Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232

Actors: Charlton Heston, Richard Thomas, James Coburn, Leon Russom, John M. Jackson

Synopsis: On July 19, 1989, a DC-10 en route from Denver to Philadelphia lost all its hydraulics and broke apart just outside of the Sioux City, Iowa airport, killing 110 of the 285 passengers and a single crew member, and risking the lives of everyone else on board. At that point, the rescue crew, which Read More

Lincoln: Now He Belongs to the Ages, 1865

Synopsis: This video is the fourth installment of the Lincoln series, originally aired on PBS. This volume focuses on the last days and hours of Abraham Lincoln's life. Viewers watch as Lincoln's enemies plot their final revenge on the man they believed had dishonored their heritage. The video also reveals Read More

Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

Mission of the Shark

Synopsis: When a top secret naval mission leads to the torpedoing of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of WWII, it began one of the most scandalous court-martials in the history of the military. For five days the surviving crew members were left in the shark-infested waters, with only half of them Read More

It

Actors: John Ritter, Richard Thomas, Annette O'Toole, Tim Curry, Harry Anderson

Synopsis: Originally titled Stephen King's It, this two-part TV movie first aired on November 18 and 20, 1990. The story starts in Maine, where a small child is lured into the hands of what audiences everywhere can be assured is one mean clown. The 30-year struggle against an evil supernatural force that Read More

Common Ground, Part 2

Synopsis: In part one of the 4-hour TV movie Common Ground (see separate entry for details), the city of Boston embarks upon its 1974 school busing program. Instead of bringing unity and harmony, the buses have brought dissension, divisiveness, and some of the ugliest overt bigotry since the 1950s. The Read More

Glory! Glory!

Actors: James Whitmore, Ellen Greene, Barry Morse, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Glory! Glory! is a "roman a clef" of the Evangelism industry, with all the names fictionalized but with all characters easily recognizable to anyone who's ever watched a religious UHF channel. Barry Morse portrays a radio preacher whose operation is controlled by his honest but colorless son Richard Thomas Read More

Common Ground, Part 1

Actors: Jane Curtin, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: J. Anthony Lukas' 1985 Pulitzer Prize winning book Common Ground served as the basis of the two-part TV movie Common Ground. Jane Curtin plays Alice McGoff, and CCH Pounder plays Rachel Twymon, two Boston housewives and mothers on opposite sides of one of the city's bitterest racial battles. In Read More

Andre's Mother

Actors: Sada Thompson, Richard Thomas, Sylvia Sidney, Haviland Morris

Synopsis: After her son dies of AIDS, a woman must come to terms with his abbreviated life. Sada Thompson stars as the mother in this Emmy award-winning movie that aired on PBS. Thompson is joined in her grief by her dead son's lover played by Richard Thomas. As they learn to cope with their losses, the two Read More

Andy Colby's Incredibly Awesome Adventure

Actors: John Bluto, Randy Josselyn, Diane Kay, Chuck Kovacic, Jessica Puscas

Synopsis: This crazy-quilt melange was originally released as Andy Colby's Incredibly Awesome Adventure; apparently it was retitled to avoid confusion with the very similar Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Randy Josselyn plays Andy Colby, a 12-year-old videotape addict. Making a visit to the local rental Read More

Five Corners

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, Todd Graff, John Turturro, Elizabeth Berridge

Synopsis: Quirky comedy, intense drama, and warm nostalgia are all combined in this eccentric look at one night in 1964 amongst the residents of the Five Corners neighborhood of the Bronx. The bulk of the film concerns Linda (Jodie Foster), a young woman who finds herself stalked by a disturbed rapist fresh Read More

Go Toward the Light

Actors: Linda Hamilton, Richard Thomas, Piper Laurie, Ned Beatty, Joshua Harris

Synopsis: Based on the autobiographical book by Chris Oyler, the made-for-TV Go Toward the Light is a sometimes wrenching, ofttimes inspirational AIDS drama. Claire and Greg Madison (Linda Hamilton and Richard Thomas) discover to their horror that their hemophiliac son Ben (Joshua Harris) has contracted the Read More

A Decade of the Waltons

Synopsis: Originally made for television, creator Earl Hamner narrates this two-hour compilation of highlights from The Waltons TV series. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Final Jeopardy

Actors: Richard Thomas, Mary Crosby, Jeff Corey, Jonathan Goldsmith, Michael Cavanaugh

Synopsis: Don't look for Alex Trebeck or listen for the familiar "thinking music" in the made-for-TV Final Jeopardy. This chiller-diller stars Richard Thomas and Mary Crosby as a small-town couple who find themselves stranded in an unfamiliar--and most unfriendly--big city. Weaving in and out of the Read More

The Master of Ballantrae

Synopsis: It was not unusual in the 1980s for a British TV miniseries to resurface in America in the form of a re-edited feature-length "movie." The Master of Ballantrae, based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, offered a unique reversal on this process. Originally telecast in the United States as a Read More

Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story

Synopsis: Richard Thomas stars as country music star Hank Williams Jr. in this made-for-TV biopic, based on Williams' own memoirs. Williams wasn't yet four years old when his father, the legendary country singer/songwriter Hank Williams, died en route to a show. By the time he was eight, his mother, Audrey (Allyn Ann McLerie Read More

Hobson's Choice

Synopsis: This third film version of Harold Brighthouse's play Hobson's Choice moves the locale from turn-of-century London to 1914 New Orleans. Horatio Hobson (Jack Warden) is the boozy, tyrannical owner of a shoe store. Hobson's daughter Maggie (Sharon Gless) falls in love with humble shoe clerk Will Read More

Bloody Kids

Synopsis: The "Bloody" in Bloody Kids is meant in both its scatological in literal sense. Two restless teens (Derrick O'Connor and Gary Holton) from the South End of London go on a Saturday-night spree. When girls and booze lose their appeal, the boys add murder to their itinerary. A surreal, high-energy Read More

Johnny Belinda

Actors: Richard Thomas, Rosanna Arquette, Dennis Quaid

Synopsis: Rosanna Arquette stars in this TV remake about a young deaf mute who is befriended by the town doctor. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Fifth of July

Actors: Swoosie Kurtz, Cynthia Nixon, Richard Thomas, Jeff Daniels

Synopsis: Lanford Wilson's dramatic play is adapted for the small screen in this made-for-television movie. Richard Thomas stars as Ken Talley, a Vietnam vet who lost both of his legs in the war. When his friends and family gather at his Missouri farm (which he shares with his lover Jed) after a death, the Read More

Berlin Tunnel 21

Synopsis: In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the infamous Berlin Wall, CBS offered the made-for-TV drama Berlin Tunnel 21. Richard Thomas stars as Sandy Mueller, a former US army officer. Shortly after the erection of the Wall, Mueller masterminds a plan to unite five West Germans with their Read More

To Find My Son

Synopsis: Richard Thomas plays a sensitive college student in the made-for-TV To Find My Son. While tutoring a speech-impaired orphan named Tommy (Justin Dana), Thomas becomes determined to adopt the boy. The Child Welfare people, however, have different ideas: after all, Thomas is hardly in a financial Read More

Battle Beyond the Stars

Actors: Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Darlanne Fluegel

Synopsis: Produced by Roger Corman and scripted by John Sayles, Battle Beyond the Stars is a cheerfully blatant imitation of The Seven Samurai (or at least the American remake The Magnificent Seven). A peaceloving planet is attacked by malevolent aliens. The powers-that-be hire a group of mercenaries Read More

All Quiet on the Western Front

Actors: Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Years after directing the classic Marty (1955), Delbert Mann became a creator of prestige TV movie projects, none more daunting than his adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front (1979). Richard Thomas stars as Paul Baumer, a teen who, at the urging of zealously patriotic teacher Kantorek (Donald Pleasence Read More

Roots: The Next Generations

Actors: Georg Stanford Brown, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Paul Koslo

Synopsis: The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning Read More

No Other Love

Synopsis: The made-for-TV No Other Love stars Julie Kavner as a marginally retarded young adult. Sent to live in a hostel for the mentally challenged, Julie falls in love with similarly afflicted Richard Thomas Jr. Despite the misgivings of their families and the prejudices of outside world, Kavner and Read More

The Waltons: The Revelation

Synopsis: Just as he is about to accept a writing assignment in war-torn London, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) proposes to his erstwhile girlfriend Daisy (Deirdre Lenihan). It turns out, however, that Daisy has neglected to tell John-Boy a few things about herself--specifically, that she is the mother of a Read More

The Waltons: A Christmas Carol

The Waltons: The Return, Part 1

Synopsis: Richard Thomas briefly returns to the role of John-Boy Walton in this first episode of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour installment). Upon hearing of the dire financial conditions in Jefferson County, John-Boy comes home with plans of reopening the old Guthrie coal mine. Read More

The Waltons: The Return, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), John (Ralph Waite) reacts with anger when he discovers that Erin has taken a second job, caring for the children of a single man. Meanwhile, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) has returned home in hopes of reopening Read More

Getting Married