Eric Thal is an American film and stage actor, perhaps best known for his film roles as Ariel, opposite Melanie Griffith

Melanie Griffith

Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...

 in Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...

's A Stranger Among Us

A Stranger Among Us

A Stranger Among Us is a film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Melanie Griffith, released in 1992. It tells the story of an undercover police officer's experiences in a Hasidic community. It was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival....

; Sam Nivens, Donald Sutherland

Donald Sutherland

Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...

's son, in The Puppet Masters

The Puppet Masters (film)

The Puppet Masters is a 1994 science fiction film, adapted by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and David S. Goyer from Robert A. Heinlein’s 1951 novel of the same title, in which a trio of American government agents attempts to thwart a covert invasion of Earth by mind-controlling alien parasites...

; Samson, opposite Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Jane Hurley is an English model and actress who became known as a girlfriend of Hugh Grant in the 1990s. In 1994, as Grant became the focus of worldwide media attention due to the global box office success of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hurley accompanied him to the film's Los...

, in Samson and Delilah

Samson and Delilah (1996 film)

Samson and Delilah is a German/Italian/American telefilm that premiered on TNT on December 8, 1996. It was directed by Nicolas Roeg. This biblical movie was shot in Morocco.- Storyline :...

; Meade Howell, the fiance of Halle Berry

Halle Berry

Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...

's character Shelby Coles, in The Wedding

The Wedding (TV miniseries)

The Wedding is a 1998 television miniseries directed by Charles Burnett. Based on a novel by Dorothy West, it stars Halle Berry, Eric Thal, and Lynn Whitfield, and was produced by Harpo Productions...

; and Rick in Six Degrees of Separation

Six Degrees of Separation (film)

Six Degrees of Separation is a 1990 play written by John Guare that premiered at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center on May 16, 1990, directed by Jerry Zaks and starring Stockard Channing...

.

Early life

Born in Niskayuna, New York to Joan, a home-maker, and Herbert L. Thal, jr., an electrical engineer, Thal, the youngest of five children, was raised on The Main Line of Philadelphia. He began performing as a magician and started studying acting at age 14, with Richard Brewer, formerly of the Hedgerow Theatre. He graduated from The Haverford School and attended Lafayette College for one year, studying engineering and education, before moving to New York to pursue acting. He worked a variety of jobs including telemarketer, waiter, construction worker, janitor, and massage therapist, before being cast in his first film role in 1991.

Career

Thal's film career started when Sidney Lumet cast him in the lead role of Ariel opposite Melanie Griffith, after he auditioned for a smaller role. The film, written by Robert J. Avarech, portrays a murder that takes place in a Chasidic community, with Thal playing the role of the son of The Rebbe. He went on to play Alex Perkins, opposite Penelope Anne Miller, in The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag

The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag

The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag is a 1992 American screwball comedy film written by Grace Cary Bickley and directed by Allan Moyle. The film stars Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Thal, Julianne Moore, William Forsythe, and Alfre Woodard...

  and the character Rick in the film Six Degrees of Separation, alongside Heather Graham

Heather Graham

Heather Joan Graham is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Lost in Space, Bowfinger, From Hell, Anger Management, and The Hangover...

 and Will Smith

Will Smith

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

. Thal had no scenes with Donald Sutherland in Six Degrees of Separation, but went on to play the role of his son in The Puppet Masters, directed by Stuart Orme. He also worked alongside Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore

Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

, Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former...

, James LeGros

James LeGros

James LeGros is an American film and television actor. He is known as a star of independent films with a diversified body of work in the early to mid 1990s.-Personal life:...

 and Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

 in Wishful Thinking

Wishful Thinking (1997 film)

Wishful Thinking is a 1997 romantic comedy starring Jennifer Beals, Drew Barrymore, Jon Stewart, and James LeGros . It is the only film written and directed by Adam Park . Despite having a big name star like Drew Barrymore, the film received luke warm reviews and garnered little to no attention ....

. He starred opposite Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...

 in Joe's So Mean to Josephine, directed by Peter Wellington. He co-starred alongside Karyn Parsons

Karyn Parsons

Karyn Parsons is an American television and film actress and model best known for the role of Hilary Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.-Early life:...

 and Isaiah Washington

Isaiah Washington

Isaiah Washington IV is an American actor. A veteran of several Spike Lee films, Washington is best known for his role as Dr. Preston Burke on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2007.-Personal life:...

 in Mixing Nia

Mixing Nia

Mixing Nia is 1998 dramedy film by director Alison Swan. The film stars actress Karyn Parsons, as Nia, a biracial woman on a journey to find her true identity.- Plot :...

. Other lead roles include Carl Heine, Jr. in Snow Falling on Cedars

Snow Falling on Cedars (film)

Snow Falling on Cedars is a film directed by Scott Hicks. It is based on David Guterson's novel of the same title. It was released in 1999 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.-Plot:...

, directed by Scott Hicks

Scott Hicks

Robert Scott Hicks is a film director from Australia. He is best known as the screenwriter and director of Shine, the Oscar-winning biopic of pianist David Helfgott. Hicks's work has been nominated for an Academy Award as well as winning an Emmy Award.-Personal life:Hicks was born in Uganda, the...

, and the role of Harry opposite Ellen Page

Ellen Page

Ellen Philpotts-Page , known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno...

 in Mouth to Mouth

Mouth to Mouth (film)

Mouth to Mouth is a 2005 drama film written and directed by Alison Murray.-Synopsis:Sherry, an American teen living on the streets of Europe, happens across the street collective S*P*A*R*K—Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge—and immediately follows suit, joining their caravan of orphans,...

. He also appeared in the romantic comedy film The Good Guy

The Good Guy (film)

The Good Guy is a 2009 romantic comedy film directed by Julio DePietro starring Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter, and Bryan Greenberg.-Plot:Ambitious young Manhattanite and urban conservationist Beth wants it all: a good job, good friends, and a good guy to share the city with. Of course that last one...

, which premièred at the Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

.

Thal also appeared in a number of tv mini-series and shows. He starred opposite Elizabeth Hurley and alongside Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper

Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

, Diana Rigg

Diana Rigg

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....

, and Michael Gambon

Michael Gambon

Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...

 in the TV movie Samson and Delilah. He played opposite Halle Berry in the TV movie The Wedding, produced by Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

, directed by Charles Burnett

Charles Burnett

Charles Burnett may refer to:*Charles Burnett , American film director*Charles Burnett , Scottish Officer of Arms*Charles Burnett , Royal Air Force officer and Australian Chief of the Air Staff...

, and based on the book by Dorothy West

Dorothy West

Dorothy West was a novelist and short story writer who was part of the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her novel The Living Is Easy, about the life of an upper-class black family.-Early years:...

. On February 16, 1998 Jet

Jet (magazine)

Jet is an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois...

 Magazine's cover featured Halle Berry between Thal and Carl Lumbly, with the title, "Halle Berry Must Choose Between A Black Man And White Man In TV Movie 'The Wedding.'" Thal played Detective John Cahill in the unaired American pilot of Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet (TV serial)

Ultraviolet is a 1998 British television serial written and directed by Joe Ahearne and starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast. It was produced by World Productions for Channel 4.-Synopsis:...

, which was produced by Howard Gordon

Howard Gordon

Howard Gordon is an American screenwriter and producer.-Life and career:Gordon was born in Queens, New York, New York. After graduating from Princeton in 1984, Gordon came to Los Angeles with fellow filmmaker Alex Gansa to pursue a career in writing for television. Both broke into the industry...

 and Chip Johannessen

Chip Johannessen

George F. "Chip" Johannessen is an American writer, editor, and producer of numerous television series. Johannessen is credited with work on 24, Moonlight, Millennium, and Beverly Hills, 90210, among others.-Biography:...

. He appeared in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit  as Tommy Hedges, and twice in Law and Order: Criminal Intent as Didier Dupont and Don Craddock. He was a guest star in the final episode of Hack, alongside David Morse.

Thal originated the role of The Special Witness in Christopher Durang

Christopher Durang

Christopher Ferdinand Durang is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s.- Life :...

's Sex and Longing on Broadway at The Cort Theatre in 1996.

Filmography

Date	Title	Role
1992	A Stranger Among Us A Stranger Among Us A Stranger Among Us is a film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Melanie Griffith, released in 1992. It tells the story of an undercover police officer's experiences in a Hasidic community. It was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival....	Ariel
1993	The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag is a 1992 American screwball comedy film written by Grace Cary Bickley and directed by Allan Moyle. The film stars Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Thal, Julianne Moore, William Forsythe, and Alfre Woodard...	Alex Perkins
1993	Six Degrees of Separation Six Degrees of Separation (film) Six Degrees of Separation is a 1990 play written by John Guare that premiered at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center on May 16, 1990, directed by Jerry Zaks and starring Stockard Channing...	Rick
1994	The Puppet Masters The Puppet Masters (film) The Puppet Masters is a 1994 science fiction film, adapted by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and David S. Goyer from Robert A. Heinlein’s 1951 novel of the same title, in which a trio of American government agents attempts to thwart a covert invasion of Earth by mind-controlling alien parasites...	Sam Nivens
1996	Joe's So Mean to Josephine	Joe
1996	Samson and Delilah Samson and Delilah (1996 film) Samson and Delilah is a German/Italian/American telefilm that premiered on TNT on December 8, 1996. It was directed by Nicolas Roeg. This biblical movie was shot in Morocco.- Storyline :...  (TV movie)	Samson
1997	Wishful Thinking Wishful Thinking (1997 film) Wishful Thinking is a 1997 romantic comedy starring Jennifer Beals, Drew Barrymore, Jon Stewart, and James LeGros . It is the only film written and directed by Adam Park . Despite having a big name star like Drew Barrymore, the film received luke warm reviews and garnered little to no attention ....	Jack
1998	The Wedding The Wedding (TV miniseries) The Wedding is a 1998 television miniseries directed by Charles Burnett. Based on a novel by Dorothy West, it stars Halle Berry, Eric Thal, and Lynn Whitfield, and was produced by Harpo Productions...  (TV miniseries)	Meade Howell
1998	Mixing Nia Mixing Nia Mixing Nia is 1998 dramedy film by director Alison Swan. The film stars actress Karyn Parsons, as Nia, a biracial woman on a journey to find her true identity.- Plot :...	Matt
1999	Shift (TV movie)	Eddie
1999	Snow Falling on Cedars Snow Falling on Cedars (film) Snow Falling on Cedars is a film directed by Scott Hicks. It is based on David Guterson's novel of the same title. It was released in 1999 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.-Plot:...	Carl Heine, Jr.
1999	Prisoner of Love Prisoner of Love Prisoner of Love may refer to:In music:* "Prisoner of Love" , a song popularized by Russ Columbo and revived by Billy Eckstine, Perry Como, James Brown, and Frank Sinatra, and others as well.* "Prisoner of Love"...	Johnny
2000	The $treet The $treet The $treet is an American television drama series that aired on Fox in 2000. 11 episodes were produced and 6 aired in the U.S.The series was about a small brokerage house called Belmont Stevens located in New York and the lives of its employees. Freddie Sacker was one of the most notable...  (TV series – "Rebound")	Mike
2001	The Shaft Down (film) Down is a 2001 horror film about a killer elevator, starring James Marshall and Naomi Watts. The film is also known as The Shaft, which is the name used for the United States DVD release...	Jeffrey
2001	Law & Order: Criminal Intent Law & Order: Criminal Intent Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...  (TV series – "The Extra Man")	Didier Dupont
2002	Ed Ed (TV series) Ed is an NBC television program co-produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated, NBC Productions, and Viacom Productions that aired from 2000 to 2004....  (TV series – "The Road")	Frank
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...  (TV series – "Appearances")	Tommy Hedges
2004	Hack (TV series – "The Reckoning")	Danny Jannik
2005	Mouth to Mouth Mouth to Mouth (film) Mouth to Mouth is a 2005 drama film written and directed by Alison Murray.-Synopsis:Sherry, an American teen living on the streets of Europe, happens across the street collective S*P*A*R*K—Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge—and immediately follows suit, joining their caravan of orphans,...	Harry
2006	Law & Order: Criminal Intent Law & Order: Criminal Intent Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...  (TV series – "Dollhouse")	Don Craddock
2006	Looking for Sunday	Jared
2008	Paper Angels (short)	Frank Rice
2009	The Good Guy The Good Guy (film) The Good Guy is a 2009 romantic comedy film directed by Julio DePietro starring Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter, and Bryan Greenberg.-Plot:Ambitious young Manhattanite and urban conservationist Beth wants it all: a good job, good friends, and a good guy to share the city with. Of course that last one...	Stephens

Personal life

Thal lives in New York City. He actively became interested in music in the 1990s and plays guitar, drums, and piano. He is the owner and founder of American English Master.

External links

• Eric Thal at Internet Movie Database