Known for her starring role opposite Lee Majors in The Fall Guy, Heather Thomas–who turned 66 on September 8–was poised for a hugely success Hollywood career.
But when the actor’s mother showed up on set after the show’s finale was filmed, the gorgeous blonde rushed to hospital, believing that her father had an emergency.
The family and friends who greeted her at the Santa Monica hospital let her know that her dad, Leon, was fine, and that it was her who had their concerns.
This was just the beginning of a new journey for the then 28-year-old woman, whose personal life and career completely transformed after that visit to the hospital.
Keep reading to find out what happened to the former pinup girl of the 1980s!
Gifted with the talent and natural movie star beauty that rivalled Farrah Fawcett and Heather Locklear, Heather Thomas did what she was born to do.
Playing Jody Banks, a stuntwoman-bounty hunter on the popular action show, Thomas was adored by the male population who viewed her as a sex symbol, a title which she admits to having mixed feelings.
“There’s obligatory condescension that goes with that,” Thomas told People. “You fill that archetype, the blonde bimbo. But at that point, I was just having fun.”
Unfortunately, she was having too much fun with the inclusion of drugs, a habit that started before her role as Jody Banks.
Her substance use dates to the sixth grade when she started using drugs to maintain steady top grades. Thomas said, “I was taking acid and making straight A’s. I just thought it was mind expanding.”
As her mind evolved from child to adult, so did the drugs she consumed.
At UCLA Thomas started using cocaine and in 1981, one year into her role on The Fall Guy, her drug problems escalated.
Also, feeling like she had to live up with her sex symbol title, the 5-foot-7 Thomas became obsessed with weight, and started taking Lasix, a diuretic that can cause severe lethargy.
To counteract the lethargy, she took more cocaine for a burst of energy.
“At first I was in a honeymoon stage with the drug. I felt that I was getting a lot for my money. It enabled me to stay up all night and then work all the next day,” she said, claiming that she never used cocaine on set. “Cocaine is not approved of on sets. It’s not clubby to do it anymore. It is just a private hell.”
Contrary to her claims, a source close to the actor told People that her drug use was derailing her career. “Word was out on Heather,” the source said. “People knew she had a problem.”
Thomas dropped from 125 to 105 pounds and was falling asleep between takes. Thomas admitted, “Sometimes I was in a minicoma.”
And then she passed out in front of Majors, who called her manager, who called her mother.
When the series finale of The Fall Guy wrapped, her mom, Gladdy Ryder–a former special education teacher–appeared on the set and told her daughter that her father was in hospital.
Rushing to St. John’s Hospital, the author of “Trophies” was greeted by family and friends who were ready to see her admitted into the hospital’s three-week drug program.
“It was a big relief to me,” Thomas said of that day, adding that when she checked into detox, she had pneumonia, scarred lungs and inflamed kidneys. “I’d been on a roller coaster and I wanted to get off. If my family hadn’t intervened, I probably would have gone on my merry way until I lost my job or I died.”
She added, “…The doctors said I should have been dead three years ago.”
Committed to recovery, Thomas surrounded herself with like-minded people who would benefit her goals of being drug-free. That was when Thomas, 28 at the time, met and married Allan Rosenthal, the co-founder of Cocaine Anonymous, whom she divorced in September 1986.
The same month, she suffered serious injuries to both legs when she was struck by a car while crossing the street.
After detox, divorce and surgery repair major damage in one of her legs, Thomas returned to work with smaller roles in TV series. She can also be seen in films like in Cyclone in 1987 and the 1990 Canadian film Red Blooded American Girl with Christopher Plummer.
With her troubles behind her, Thomas started new in the 1990s and while trying to revive her career, she married entertainment lawyer Skip Brittenham in 1992. Taking on the new role as the stepmother to his two daughters, Kristina and Shauna, Thomas also gave birth to her only biological child, daughter India Rose who was born in June 2000.
“So when I had about 45 restraining orders out, and I was on everything from a toilet seat cover to an ashtray–and I was in love, and [then] had two little girls–I decided to give it up and write for a while,” she told Reuters.
In 2017, Heather made a brief comeback in the movie Girltrash: All Night Long, one of her 26 acting credits in her career.
Focused mostly on writing, the Zapped! actor said it wasn’t a lack of roles that drove her from acting, but the stalkers who persistently breached her privacy.
“I was getting so stalked. I had one guy climb over the fence with a knife one time. I had these two little girls and they desperately needed raising so that was that. But I think now I have gotten so old that people won’t bother me much.”
Thomas is also now involved as an activist and formerly served on the board for the Rape Foundation and Amazon Conservation Team.
Identifying as a feminist–a duplicitous title for a former sex symbol–Thomas explained the power of both.
“When I was young, I did what people told me to do but when I was older, I didn’t compromise myself. I wanted power and freedom. This gave me a house and the notoriety to get into the door. There is nothing horrible in letting people see your body. I don’t think I betrayed myself. I don’t think being a feminist means you should be ashamed of your body,” she said.
It’s really sad that Heather Thomas was unable to revive her career in acting again but we’re happy that she got the help she needed and is now in a lifelong journey of recovery.
There are so many wonderful shows of the 1980s and we loved seeing her in the role of Jody Banks in The Fall Guy with the Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors!
We’d love to hear what you have to say about Thomas and her recovery!
Known for her starring role opposite Lee Majors in The Fall Guy, Heather Thomas–who turned 66 on September 8–was poised for a hugely success Hollywood career.
But when the actor’s mother showed up on set after the show’s finale was filmed, the gorgeous blonde rushed to hospital, believing that her father had an emergency.
The family and friends who greeted her at the Santa Monica hospital let her know that her dad, Leon, was fine, and that it was her who had their concerns.
At only 14 the girl hosted an NBC series called Talking with a Giant, a show where she and four other teens interviewed celebrities.
Wanting to take her career to the next level–as an actor, director and writer–Thomas, now 66, then studied film and theater at UCLA, and the year before she graduated, she appeared in the short-lived comedy series, Co-Ed Fever (1979).
Heather Locklear and Heather ThomasPosted by Back to 80s on Saturday, June 5, 2021
In 1980, the Connecticut-born actor won her first leading role in the TV series, The Fall Guy, playing the sidekick to Lee Majors, who in the 1970s, gained global recognition for his performance as Steven Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man.
Playing Jody Banks, a stuntwoman-bounty hunter on the popular action show, Thomas was adored by the male population who viewed her as a sex symbol, a title which she admits to having mixed feelings.
“There’s obligatory condescension that goes with that,” Thomas told People. “You fill that archetype, the blonde bimbo. But at that point, I was just having fun.”
Unfortunately, she was having too much fun with the inclusion of drugs, a habit that started before her role as Jody Banks.
Her substance use dates to the sixth grade when she started using drugs to maintain steady top grades. Thomas said, “I was taking acid and making straight A’s. I just thought it was mind expanding.”
As her mind evolved from child to adult, so did the drugs she consumed.
At UCLA Thomas started using cocaine and in 1981, one year into her role on The Fall Guy, her drug problems escalated.
Also, feeling like she had to live up with her sex symbol title, the 5-foot-7 Thomas became obsessed with weight, and started taking Lasix, a diuretic that can cause severe lethargy.
To counteract the lethargy, she took more cocaine for a burst of energy.
“At first I was in a honeymoon stage with the drug. I felt that I was getting a lot for my money. It enabled me to stay up all night and then work all the next day,” she said, claiming that she never used cocaine on set. “Cocaine is not approved of on sets. It’s not clubby to do it anymore. It is just a private hell.”
Contrary to her claims, a source close to the actor told People that her drug use was derailing her career. “Word was out on Heather,” the source said. “People knew she had a problem.”
Thomas dropped from 125 to 105 pounds and was falling asleep between takes. Thomas admitted, “Sometimes I was in a minicoma.”
And then she passed out in front of Majors, who called her manager, who called her mother.
When the series finale of The Fall Guy wrapped, her mom, Gladdy Ryder–a former special education teacher–appeared on the set and told her daughter that her father was in hospital.
Rushing to St. John’s Hospital, the author of “Trophies” was greeted by family and friends who were ready to see her admitted into the hospital’s three-week drug program.
“It was a big relief to me,” Thomas said of that day, adding that when she checked into detox, she had pneumonia, scarred lungs and inflamed kidneys. “I’d been on a roller coaster and I wanted to get off. If my family hadn’t intervened, I probably would have gone on my merry way until I lost my job or I died.”
She added, “…The doctors said I should have been dead three years ago.”
Committed to recovery, Thomas surrounded herself with like-minded people who would benefit her goals of being drug-free. That was when Thomas, 28 at the time, met and married Allan Rosenthal, the co-founder of Cocaine Anonymous, whom she divorced in September 1986.
The same month, she suffered serious injuries to both legs when she was struck by a car while crossing the street.
After detox, divorce and surgery repair major damage in one of her legs, Thomas returned to work with smaller roles in TV series. She can also be seen in films like in Cyclone in 1987 and the 1990 Canadian film Red Blooded American Girl with Christopher Plummer.
With her troubles behind her, Thomas started new in the 1990s and while trying to revive her career, she married entertainment lawyer Skip Brittenham in 1992. Taking on the new role as the stepmother to his two daughters, Kristina and Shauna, Thomas also gave birth to her only biological child, daughter India Rose who was born in June 2000.
“So when I had about 45 restraining orders out, and I was on everything from a toilet seat cover to an ashtray–and I was in love, and [then] had two little girls–I decided to give it up and write for a while,” she told Reuters.
In 2017, Heather made a brief comeback in the movie Girltrash: All Night Long, one of her 26 acting credits in her career.
Focused mostly on writing, the Zapped! actor said it wasn’t a lack of roles that drove her from acting, but the stalkers who persistently breached her privacy.
“I was getting so stalked. I had one guy climb over the fence with a knife one time. I had these two little girls and they desperately needed raising so that was that. But I think now I have gotten so old that people won’t bother me much.”
Thomas is also now involved as an activist and formerly served on the board for the Rape Foundation and Amazon Conservation Team.
Identifying as a feminist–a duplicitous title for a former sex symbol–Thomas explained the power of both.
“When I was young, I did what people told me to do but when I was older, I didn’t compromise myself. I wanted power and freedom. This gave me a house and the notoriety to get into the door. There is nothing horrible in letting people see your body. I don’t think I betrayed myself. I don’t think being a feminist means you should be ashamed of your body,” she said.
It’s really sad that Heather Thomas was unable to revive her career in acting again but we’re happy that she got the help she needed and is now in a lifelong journey of recovery.
There are so many wonderful shows of the 1980s and we loved seeing her in the role of Jody Banks in The Fall Guy with the Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors!
We’d love to hear what you have to say about Thomas and her recovery!
If you just took a walk down memory lane, step back in time again and read about the iconic model Twiggy – and press here to see how she looks today, at 73.
The Camera Revealed Our Expectant Birth Mother’s Plan to Destroy My Family – Her Lies Gave Me the Life I Always Dreamed Of
When Rachel spotted her husband kissing the woman they had trusted to bring their dream of parenthood to life, her world crumbled. But what began as a betrayal set her on an unexpected path, proving that the darkest moments can ultimately lead to something beautiful.
I was halfway through unloading groceries when my phone buzzed. It was a motion alert from our door camera. Frowning, I tapped the notification and waited for the video to load.
A woman looking at her phone | Source: Pexels
It was Sean. He was on the porch, but he wasn’t alone.
“Jessica?” I whispered, frozen as I watched her step closer to him. Her hand rested on her swollen belly as her lips curved into a smile. Sean said something I couldn’t hear, and then she kissed him.
A man hugging his wife | Source: Midjourney
I dropped the carton of eggs.
You see, Sean and I had been married for five years. We had built a beautiful life together, or at least, I thought we had. When we realized we couldn’t have children, I was heartbroken. Adoption became my lifeline, my way to the family I dreamed of.
At first, Sean wasn’t on board.
An uncertain man | Source: Pexels
“Adoption’s a big step,” he said one night, staring into his beer. “What if… I don’t know… What if it doesn’t feel the same?”
“It’ll be ours, Sean,” I said, gripping his hand. “We’ll love them like they’re our own. Please, just think about it.”
He eventually agreed, but not without hesitation. Still, I clung to hope.
A woman smiling at herself | Source: Pexels
Months later, our adoption agency called.
“Congratulations!” the social worker chirped. “Jessica, a young expectant mother, has chosen you and Sean to adopt her baby. She loved your profile, said you seemed kind and stable.”
Stable. If only Jessica knew.
A thoughtful woman | Source: Pexels
I was ecstatic. I threw myself into preparations — decorating the nursery, reading parenting books, and doing everything I could to make Jessica feel supported.
“You’re paying for her rent now?” Sean asked one evening, his tone sharper than usual.
“She’s carrying our baby,” I said. “The least we can do is make her comfortable.”
Sean nodded, but something in his expression unsettled me.
A couple having a serious conversation | Source: Pexels
At first, everything seemed fine. Jessica was polite but distant. I assumed she just needed space. Sean, however, was overly attentive.
“She needs someone to drive her to the doctor,” he said one Saturday morning, grabbing his keys. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I could go,” I offered.
“No, it’s fine. I’m already dressed.”
A man leaving his house with car keys | Source: Midjourney
I didn’t argue, though the pattern repeated itself. Late-night texts. Long phone calls. Sean also insisted on visiting Jessica alone.
One night, I finally said something.
“You’re spending a lot of time with her.”
“She’s carrying our baby, Rachel,” he snapped. “What do you expect me to do? Ignore her?”
A couple arguing in their living room | Source: Pexels
I bit my lip and looked away. Maybe he was just stressed. We both were.
The door camera footage proved I was wrong.
When Sean came home that evening, I was waiting in the living room.
“Rachel?” he said, surprised to see me sitting in the dark.
An angry woman sitting in the dark | Source: Midjourney
“How long?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“What are you talking about?”
I held up my phone, showing him the video. “How long have you been sleeping with her?”
Sean’s face turned ghostly pale. “I… It’s not what it looks like.”
A couple arguing | Source: Pexels
“Don’t you dare lie to me!” I shouted, tears streaming down my face. “I saw her kiss you, Sean! How could you do this to me? To us?”
“It just happened,” he stammered. “I didn’t plan this, Rachel. It started before we knew she was pregnant. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Hurt me?” I laughed bitterly. “You’ve destroyed everything!”
“I’ll fix it,” he said desperately. “I swear, I’ll fix it.”
An angry woman talking to her husband | Source: Pexels
Jessica’s voice echoed in my head. “She’s carrying our baby. I had to step up. It was the right thing to do.” Only now, I wasn’t so sure.
“Whose baby is it, Sean?”
He hesitated. “She says it’s mine. She chose our family because she recognized me among the families.”
My world crumbled.
A sad man sitting at the table | Source: Pexels
“Get out,” I whispered.
“Rachel—”
“Get out!”
Sean grabbed his coat and left. I sat alone in the silence, my mind racing. Jessica had chosen us to adopt her baby, but it wasn’t an act of kindness. It was revenge.
A sad upset woman in her living room | Source: Midjourney
The call came a month after Sean left. I hadn’t heard much from him, though I knew he was still with Jessica. The silence was both a relief and a burden.
“Rachel,” Sean’s voice came through the phone. It was unsteady. “I need to talk to you.”
I sat down, gripping the edge of the counter. “What do you want, Sean?”
“It’s about the baby. He looked nothing like me.” He hesitated, then exhaled heavily. “I had a paternity test done.”
A man looking at his phone | Source: Pexels
“And?”
“She lied,” he said, his voice breaking. “It’s not mine.”
For a moment, I didn’t respond. The words felt surreal.
“She made it all up?” I asked, my tone flat.
A woman talking on her phone | Source: Pexels
“She thought I wouldn’t ask for a test,” Sean said. “But when the baby was born, I just… I didn’t see it. The timing didn’t make sense either.”
I closed my eyes, anger and vindication swirling together. “So what now?”
“I don’t know,” Sean admitted. “Jessica left. She took the baby, and I haven’t heard from her since. I — Rachel, I’m so sorry. I messed up.”
A sad man talking on his phone | Source: Midjourney
I laughed bitterly. “Sorry doesn’t even begin to cover it, Sean. You didn’t just mess up. You betrayed me, destroyed our marriage, and let that woman humiliate me.”
“I want to come back,” he said softly. “I want to fix this.”
“No,” I said firmly. “There’s nothing to fix. Go figure out your life, Sean. I’m moving on with mine.”
A serious woman talking on her phone | Source: Midjourney
Two weeks later, I found myself at the hospital. I had avoided it since the adoption fell apart, but there were loose ends to tie up — final paperwork, the agency’s apologies, and too many painful reminders.
“Are you Rachel?” a gentle male voice asked as I stood near the reception desk.
I turned to see a tall man with kind eyes and a warm smile. He wore scrubs and carried a clipboard.
A med tech | Source: Pexels
“Yes,” I said cautiously.
“I’m Ethan,” he said, extending his hand. “I work in the lab here. I was supposed to meet you to review some of the test results.”
“Oh,” I said, shaking his hand. His grip was steady, calming. “Thank you.”
We walked to a small office. Ethan handed me some forms, explaining the process for closing the adoption file.
A doctor holding a tablet | Source: Pexels
“I’m sorry you’re going through this,” he said sincerely. “It’s not easy, losing something you hoped for.”
I nodded, surprised by the emotion rising in my chest. “Thank you.”
For a moment, he seemed hesitant, then said, “I… I went through something similar. My fiancée left me two years ago. We had a newborn daughter at the time.”
A young woman talking to a lab tech | Source: Midjourney
I blinked. “She just left?”
“Vanished,” he said, his voice heavy. “I tried to find her, but she didn’t want to be found. After a while, I stopped looking. I figured she made her choice.”
“Wow,” I said softly. “I’m so sorry. That must’ve been awful.”
He nodded. “I heard rumors she’d passed away. I guess I’m a widower now. I didn’t know what to believe, so I focused on my daughter. She’s the best thing in my life now.”
A lab worker talking to a woman | Source: Midjourney
Something about his story tugged at me. “Do you have a picture of her? Your fiancée, I mean?”
Ethan hesitated, then pulled out his phone. He tapped a few times and handed it to me.
My stomach dropped. It was Jessica.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
A smiling woman near a flower bush | Source: Midjourney
“Rachel?” Ethan asked, concerned.
I handed the phone back, my hand trembling. “Ethan, I… I know her. Jessica. She’s the woman who was supposed to give us her baby.”
Ethan’s expression froze. “What?”
A shocked man | Source: Pexels
“She manipulated my husband,” I said, my voice shaking. “She claimed the baby was his. It wasn’t true. She’s the reason my marriage ended.”
Ethan sat back, stunned. “So she’s alive?”
“Yes,” I said quietly. “And as awful as it sounds, I wish I didn’t know.”
A sad serious woman talking to a lab tech | Source: Midjourney
Ethan was silent for a long moment. Then he looked at me with a mix of sadness and determination. “Well, I guess now we both know the truth. What do we do with it?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
For the first time in a long while, I felt a strange, fragile sense of hope. Maybe, just maybe, this broken road would lead to something better.
A smiling young woman looking at a lab tech | Source: Midjourney
Ethan and I started meeting for coffee after work. At first, it was just two people sharing stories of heartbreak — his fiancée leaving him with a newborn and my husband shattering our marriage with lies.
Ethan shared how Jessica left him after he lost his place in med school. Devastated, he enrolled in a local college so he could at least work in a lab and rebuild his life. Somehow, in each other’s company, the weight of the past felt a little lighter.
A couple in a cafe | Source: Pexels
“It’s funny,” Ethan said one evening as we watched his daughter, Lila, toddle around the park. “I thought losing Jessica would break me forever. But Lila gave me a reason to keep going.”
“She’s lucky to have you,” I said softly. “You’re an amazing dad.”
“And you’re an amazing person for surviving everything you’ve been through,” he replied.
A woman with a toddler | Source: Pexels
We grew closer, bit by bit. I babysat Lila when Ethan had night shifts, and he helped me repaint the nursery I’d once prepared for another child. Slowly, the empty spaces in my life began to fill with laughter, warmth, and love.
A year later, Ethan proposed, and I said yes. I became Lila’s stepmother, and soon after, we welcomed our own baby girl. Watching Ethan hold our newborn, his face glowing with pride, I knew my life had come full circle.
Parents looking at their baby | Source: Pexels
Ethan went back to school, determined to finish his medical degree. “You believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself,” he told me. And when he graduated, I cheered louder than anyone.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
Leave a Reply