By Ben Lerner
There are plenty of Broadway performers who are on the boards over many decades, carving out a career onstage throughout different phases of their lives. Some are legends, while others are unsung stalwarts of the stage. Then there’s Richard Thomas, who debuted as a child actor on Broadway back in 1958, and who just starred, at age 75, in the Tony-nominated play The Balusters.
It’s not a record (yet!), as Helen Hayes appeared on Broadway over 78 years (debuting in 1909 and last performing in 1987). More recently, June Squibb appeared in Marjorie Prime at age 96, having debuted in 1959 as Electra in Gypsy. However, Squibb spent multiple consecutive decades away from the stage before returning.
Richard Thomas has performed on Broadway every single decade from the 1950s through the 2020s, with the exception of the 1970s and 1990s. (He starred as John-Boy in the hit series The Waltons throughout the 70s, winning an Emmy along the way, and he starred in regional theatre and several Waltons reunion movies throughout the 90s.)
Thomas first appeared on Broadway at just seven years old as President Franklin Roosevelt’s youngest child, John, in Sunrise At Campobello, a drama about FDR’s struggle with polio. In 1963, age 12, he was cast as the child version of Gordon in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, co-starring Jane Fonda.
Thomas appeared twice more in Broadway plays as a teenager. In 1965, he starred in the short-lived psychological thriller, The Playroom, and in 1967, he appeared in Edward Albee’s adaptation of Giles Cooper’s Everything in the Garden.
With four plays under his belt by age 17, Thomas moved to Hollywood and spent most of the 1970s starring in The Waltons. But mere months after the series concluded in 1981, Thomas was back on the Broadway stage, now 30, replacing Christopher Reeve as the lead in Fifth of July. He played a gay double amputee Vietnam veteran, opposite Jeff Daniels as his boyfriend. Both later starred together in the roles for a made-for-TV film adaptation.
He appeared twice more on Broadway in the 1980s, co-starring in a 1986 revival of the 1928 newspaper comedy The Front Page, opposite John Lithgow. (They both appeared on Broadway and were Tony-nominated this most recent season, 40 years later, with Lithgow winning for Giant.) In 1989, Thomas stepped in for a weeklong run in the revolving cast of Love Letters, a two-character romance told in epistolary format, where he was reunited with Swoozie Kurtz, his co-star from Fifth of July.
Thomas didn’t return to Broadway for 15 years, but came back in full force in the 2000s. Now in his 50s, he starred in back-to-back original plays two seasons in a row: Democracy (2004) and A Naked Girl on the Appian Way (2005). Next, in 2009, the veteran actor starred in David Mamet’s Race, opposite James Spader and Kerry Washington, both making their Broadway debuts.
Richard Thomas was booked and busy in the 2010s, during which he appeared in four different Broadway plays, starting with a 2012 revival of Henrik Ibsen’s classic An Enemy of the People. In 2015, he replaced Mark Linn-Baker in a Tony-winning revival of the 1936 comedy You Can’t Take It With You, co-starring with James Earl Jones, Annaleigh Ashford, and Rose Byrne.
Next came the 2017 revival of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, for which Richard Thomas earned his first career Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. This production was famous for Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney alternating the roles of Birdie and Regina. Both were also Tony-nominated, with Nixon winning.
Thomas’ last Broadway role of that decade was originating the role of Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 2019’s The Great Society, where Brian Cox played President Lyndon B. Johnson. (It was a follow-up to 2012’s All The Way, which had earned Bryan Cranston a Tony for his performance as LBJ.)
Thomas made his grand post-COVID return to the Broadway stage as Mr. Webb in the 2024 revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic Our Town, opposite Katie Holmes. Now, nearly 70 years after his debut, Thomas just closed The Balusters on June 21, which earned him his second career Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
While some may mostly know Richard Thomas from The Waltons, we salute his long-running career in the theatre and hope to see him onstage for years to come. If we’re lucky enough to have him on Broadway in a decade’s time, he will beat Helen Hayes’ record for longest Broadway career!