Dori: ‘Ozark,’ actor Richard Thomas talks career, upcoming ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ performance

50 years ago, he was the star of the No. 1 TV show in the country. Today, he’s the lead of the most talked-about national Broadway touring show in the U.S. – with October performances coming to Seattle.

In between his highly recognizable work on TV dramas and Broadway, Richard Thomas – who made dream-driven John-Boy a household name on “The Waltons” for nine seasons on CBS starting in the early 1970s – also made a daytime game show guest appearance on “Match Game ’73.”

Thomas, Dori pointed out, is a rare performer: He has never been out of work.

From his 1990s TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s epic horror novel “It,” to some of the most recognized series of the 2000s, Thomas owns some of the most diverse characters on TV over the past five decades.

He has been FBI special agent Frank Gaad on FX network’s Emmy award-winning spy-thriller “The Americans,” depicting the Cold War era of the early 1980s. More recently, he played psychological games with his on-screen drug money-laundering daughter Wendy Byrde as her father on Netflix’s multi-Emmy-winning crime drama “Ozark” from 2017-2022.

And now, Thomas, 71, is coming to Seattle’s Paramount Theatre as “Atticus Finch” in Aaron Sorkin’s acclaimed adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” from Oct. 11-16.

“That’s not a bad pair of bookends,” Dori told Thomas, whose Broadway career started in 1958 when he was just 7 years old.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Thomas responded with a laugh. “You made my day.”

“The Waltons”

When Dori recalled his own Thursday night devotion to “The Waltons,” depicting a tight-knit, Depression-era rural Virginia family, Thomas reflected on the long-reaching impact the close family scenes still have on him.

“These are the stories I most love to hear,” said Thomas, who won an Emmy for his role as the aspiring writer and eldest of seven siblings. When fans tell him, “’I have memories watching it with my grandma and grandpa’ – they mean the most to me.”

Scenes where the series’ ensemble cast – often set at the multi-generational family’s kitchen table – “are very special. We became such a family over the years. It really was like a big family. I think those scenes were the heart of the show.” Surviving cast members, added, “stay in touch. It’s very, very heartening.”

After that series ended, Thomas spoke of his transition from “The Waltons” to other adult roles with a high level of respect for viewers.

“At first, you want to say ‘I’m out of here and I want everybody else to be out of here with me,’” he said. “That’s an unrealistic expectation.”

Instead, Thomas said he adopted a different attitude.

“I was lucky enough to find a role the entire country, the entire world – there were three networks, and it was all over the world at the time, so it wasn’t just the United States” connected with, the veteran actor said. “If you are lucky enough to land a role with that kind of identification, the price you pay will be that people will remember you for that.”

Taking dramatically different roles has allowed him to avoid typecasting, Thomas continued.

“You just have to play the long game with it, and eventually things kind of even out – but there’s always going to be a special connection with the first big success and it’s a blessing,” he added.

Relaxed and comfortable with a ready laugh, Thomas joked back when Dori recalled the actor’s 1973 appearance on the popular “Match Game” daytime game show.

“I watched an episode on YouTube and you’re in a bow tie and plaid jacket,” Dori said.

“Oh, my God – that jacket! Well, it was the ‘70s,” Thomas laughed.

Roles in the 1990s and 2000s

What then, Dori asked, does it take for shows to break out with success – including Thomas’ role in “The Americans” decades later?

“That’s a mystery,” Thomas said. “It’s hard to break it down into one thing.”

One element of a show’s success, he believes, is “it needs to stand alone. It needs to be a show with a new idea – something that we haven’t seen before or in that form.”

“The Waltons,” for example, came at a time when “the country was torn off by Vietnam and Watergate and then there’s this show about a poor family trying to make it during The Depression. People slowly found it and by the end of the season, it was No. 1” in the ratings,” Thomas said. “It was a new idea.”

“Ozark” on the other hand was “so outrageously dark and funny,” he continued. “It was the creation of a crime family and was absolutely fascinating.”

Thomas also credits not only the exceptional writing but the producers for their vision.

“And you have to cast it well,” he added. “It’s a combination of so many things.”

“To Kill a Mockingbird”

With Thomas’ starring role as Atticus Finch, based on Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel based on her memories of 1936 Alabama, his success is now hitting another career pinnacle.

“My first love as an actor is theater,” Thomas told Dori’s listeners. With 14 Broadway shows to his credit, Thomas received his first Tony award nomination for “The Little Foxes” eight years ago.

Consequently, when Aaron Sorkin premiered the Broadway adaptation several years ago, Thomas said to himself “if this show tours . . . I want to do it. . . We know it’s one of the most respected pieces of American literature – Americans love it more than any other book – and a great movie with Greg Peck.”

“Aaron Sorkin taking on Harper Lee’s work: that’s pretty gutsy stuff,” Dori posed.

Thomas agreed, adding that Sorkin’s version is one that he “has kept true to his source material with newer perspectives – without making it contemporary. There’s a great deal of humor. He (Sorkin) writes very funny, as well as drama. He’s mixed it beautifully – the light and the dark.”

On top of that, Thomas added from his current touring location in San Francisco, he’s “excited to be back in Seattle” where he has fond memories of performing in “Barefoot in the Park” at The Moore Theater after his stint on “The Waltons.”

Reserved seats are still available for the Oct. 11-16 performances of “To Kill a Mockingbird” at The Paramount Theatre by going to Seattle Theatre Group.

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.