Henry Thomas, the actor best known for his roles in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Haunting of Hill House, was arrested on Monday, October 21, for allegedly driving under the influence, Us Weekly confirms.
A spokesperson for the Tualatin Police Department in Oregon tells Us that another motorist called 911 shortly after 8:30 p.m. to report that a car was stopped “in the lane of travel” at a residential intersection. When officers arrived, they had to wake up Thomas, 48, who was asleep behind the wheel.
Police administered a field sobriety test to the Texas native, which he failed. He was transported to the Washington County Jail and booked for misdemeanor driving under the influence of intoxicants.
A spokesperson for the jail told KATU on Tuesday, October 22, that Thomas was still in custody and will be released when he is sober.
Thomas starred as Elliott in the Steven Spielberg-directed movie E.T. in 1982. He struggled with the fame that succeeded his breakthrough role.
“Of course there have been times I regretted being the kid in E.T.,” he admitted to the Daily Mirror in 2013. “My world went completely crazy. I was that stupid kind of famous, where you can’t go anywhere. It was like that for the first six months after E.T. was in cinemas. I’d go out and get mobbed. I was a shy kid, and being approached by adults all the time just freaked me out. I was like a circus freak. But the only time I had to deal with it was when I left the house. So I stopped leaving the house. I became an 11-year-old hermit.”
Thomas had small roles in films such as Legends of the Fall and Suicide Kings between the mid-‘80s and the early ‘00s before finding renewed fame as Hugh Crain in Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. He is set to star in the horror anthology series’ second season, The Haunting of Bly Manor, which premieres in 2020.
The actor shares daughter Hazel with his ex-wife Marie Zielcke, and daughter Evelyn and son Henry with his current wife, Annalee Fery.
