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IMDbPro

Eric Thal

  • Actor
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Eric Thal in A Stranger Among Us (1992)
Trailer
Play trailer1:07
Wishful Thinking (1997)
6 Videos
10 Photos
Born in Niskayuna (Schenectady county), New York, Eric Thal attended Haverford Preparatory School in Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1983 were he was Student Council President. He then moved on to attend Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania where he majored in engineering. With the encouragement of his acting teacher Richard Bruer he left school after one year to pursue acting. At The Neighbourhood Playhouse Theatre he studied with Richard Pinter and studied classical theatre with Ada Brown Mather.

After working in commercials and as a magician in New York City, he auditioned for a small role in Sidney Lumet's film A Stranger Among Us (1992). Lumet was so impressed by the young actor, the director invited back to audition for the leading role. Although he had virtually no professional credits, Thal landed the role of an Hasidic scholar who becomes involved with an undercover police officer (Melanie Griffith).

While the film failed to impress critics or the public, Thal's carefully measured intensity and equanimity were praised. He subsequently played a police officer (and the anti-heroine's husband) in the farcical The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag (1992) and followed up with a small role in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), as a heterosexual driven to suicide after an intimate encounter with a con artist (Will Smith).

Thal later co-starred as Donald Sutherland's disaffected son in The Puppet Masters (1994) and as a man who must face romance after the excitement has worn off in Joe's So Mean to Josephine (1996). He segued to the small screen playing the hirsute strongman in the TNT Biblical epic Samson and Delilah (1996), opposite Elizabeth Hurley. The following year, Thal was cast as a musician engaged to Halle Berry in the ABC TV-movie The Wedding (1998).
BornAugust 10, 1965
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BornAugust 10, 1965
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro

Photos10

Will Smith, Heather Graham, and Eric Thal in Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Keith David and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Stuart Orme and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Julie Warner and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Donald Sutherland, Julie Warner, Richard Belzer, and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Julie Warner and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Julie Warner, Stuart Orme, and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)
Donald Sutherland, Julie Warner, and Eric Thal in The Puppet Masters (1994)

Known for

The Puppet Masters (1994)
The Puppet Masters
5.9
  • Sam Nivens
  • 1994
Will Smith, Stockard Channing, and Donald Sutherland in Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Six Degrees of Separation
6.8
  • Rick
  • 1993
The Shaft (2001)
The Shaft
4.6
  • Jeffrey
  • 2001
Penelope Ann Miller in The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag (1992)
The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag
5.0
  • Alex
  • 1992

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Empty Window (2016)
    Empty Window
  • Alexis Bledel, Bryan Greenberg, and Scott Porter in The Good Guy (2009)
    The Good Guy
  • Paper Angels
  • Looking for Sunday (2006)
    Looking for Sunday
  • Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Eric Bogosian, Julianne Nicholson, and Chris Noth in Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001)
    Law & Order: Criminal Intent
  • Mouth To Mouth U.S. release poster.
    Mouth to Mouth
  • David Morse in Hack (2002)
    Hack
  • Mariska Hargitay in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999)
    Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
  • Pictured - (top/back) Josh Randall, JanaMarie Hupp; (bottom, clockwise from center top) Tom Cavanagh, Michael Ian Black, Rachel Cronin, Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, Justin Long, Lesley Boone, Julie Bowen.
    Ed
  • The Shaft (2001)
    The Shaft
  • Ultraviolet
  • Adam Goldberg, Rick Hoffman, and Tom Everett Scott in The $treet (2000)
    The $treet
  • Shift
  • Prisoner of Love (1999)
    Prisoner of Love
  • Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
    Snow Falling on Cedars

Videos7

Trailer
Trailer 0:53
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:58
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:36
Official Trailer
Wishful Thinking
Trailer 1:07
Wishful Thinking
Six Degrees of Separation
Trailer 1:39
Six Degrees of Separation
The Shaft
Trailer 1:49
The Shaft
Doubling Down With the Derricos
Trailer 2:06
Doubling Down With the Derricos

Personal details

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    • Official Site
    • August 10, 1965
    • New York City, New York, USA

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Attended Haverford School outside of Philadelphia and wrestled for legendary coach Neil Buckley.

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