Henry Thomas is an American actor and musician who is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of Elliott in the 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. E.T. was an enormous box-office success and held the record of highest grossing film of all time for eleven years, before being surpassed in 1993 by another Spielberg film, Jurassic Park. E.T. is a timeless story about friendship and is considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made. Henry Jackson Thomas Jr. was born on September 9, 1971, in San Antonio, Texas; his mother is a homemaker and his father is a hydraulic machinist. Thomas attended East Central High School and Blinn College. Throughout the 1990s, Thomas played guitar and wrote songs for the San Antonio Band known as The Blue Heelers.

In 2003, Thomas collaborated with Nikki Sudden to write the music for the Mika Kaurismaki film Honey Baby. The film featured four original songs written and performed by Thomas. Henry Thomas has been married three times; first, to Kelly Hill, from 2000 to 2002. His second marriage, to German film actress Marie Zielcke, lasted just over two years but produced a daughter, Hazel. Henry is now married to his third wife, Annalee; the couple has two children.