C. Thomas Howell

Starting in 2015, Howell has had a recurring role as Dr. Daniel Stinger in the Freeform show Stitchers. In 2017, he had a recurring role as Ash Spenser, a retired Navy SEAL, in the CBS show SEAL Team.

Howell has played the role of Officer Bill 'Dewey' Dudek, a police officer recovering from alcoholism, in the L.A. police drama Southland since 2009. He appeared in Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 and was promoted to a series regular for Season 5, which began in February 2013. The series was cancelled on May 10, 2013.

Howell appeared in the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man.

In 2011, he guest starred on The Glades and in Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Also in 2008, he directed and starred in The Day the Earth Stopped, a mockbuster intended to capitalize on The Day the Earth Stood Still.

In 2006, Howell starred in Hoboken Hollow. He also became a supporter of the production company The Asylum, which produced his straight-to-DVD films.

In 2005, he starred in H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, one of three 2005 adaptations of the novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Howell directed and starred in a straight-to-DVD sequel War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave in 2008.

In 2005, he reunited with his Secret Admirer co-star Lori Loughlin, when he had a recurring role on her television show Summerland as Zac Efron's father. After War of the Worlds, he spent time directing straight to-DVD films.

Howell did not write or direct another film until 2004. He and his father co-wrote the made-for-television film Hope Ranch, which Howell produced. Howell went on to write and produce Blind Injustice the next year. Two years later he produced The Stolen Moments of September.

Howell returned to acting in the 2000s in films such as Asylum Days, the Gods and Generals prequel to Gettysburg, and The Hillside Strangler, in which he played serial killer Kenneth Bianchi.

After Two Marriages, Howell made guest appearances in shows like Moonlighting and The Hitchhiker. In 2000, Howell played a doctor stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash in Amazon.

He started an interest in crime-thrillers after starring in Payback and playing gangster Baby Face Nelson in a film of the same name. He went on to direct and star in the 1996 direct-to-video release, Pure Danger, featuring alongside Teri Ann Linn and prop comic, Carrot Top.

Howell has worked with Francis Ford Coppola many times and in other areas of making motion pictures including writing, producing, and directing. In 1995, he wrote and directed Hourglass, in which he starred with Sofia Shinas. The following year, he helped produce The Big Fall and Pure Danger.

In 1988, Howell played the young Arturo Toscanini in the story of the world-renowned conductors debut in Franco Zeffirelli's Giovane Toscanini with Irma Capece Minutolo and Elizabeth Taylor. The film was never released domestically.

In 1986, he played a hitchhiker's target in the film The Hitcher. The sequel, in which he also starred, was released in 2003. He starred as a white student who pretends to be black to receive a scholarship in the poorly received Soul Man, which currently holds an aggregated score of 14% at Rotten Tomatoes.

When Howell was young, his parents divorced. Howell graduated from Saugus High School in 1984.

In 1984 he and Outsiders co-star, Patrick Swayze, reunited for Grandview, U.S.A., also with Jamie Lee Curtis, and Red Dawn, with Charlie Sheen and Lea Thompson. Howell also had a pivotal role in Tank, with James Garner and Jenilee Harrison. In 1985 he again starred in the lead role in Secret Admirer, opposite Lori Loughlin and Kelly Preston.

He tried rodeo riding for a few years. In 1982, he made his film debut as Tyler in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Afterward, at 15, he was cast as the lead role Ponyboy Curtis in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders, which earned him a Young Artist Award.

At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, Howell appeared in The Return of the Musketeers and Side Out. In 1993, he starred with Linda Fiorentino and Nancy Allen in the campy thriller Acting on Impulse.

He appeared as a doctor in The Poseidon Adventure, an adaptation of the 1972 film of the same name. His father's first stunt co-ordination was for the original film, albeit uncredited. He briefly hosted a show on KLSX later that year.

Christopher Thomas Howell (born December 7, 1966) is an American actor and director. He has starred in the films Soul Man, The Hitcher, Grandview U.S.A., Red Dawn, Secret Admirer and The Outsiders. He has also appeared in Gettysburg as Thomas Chamberlain, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Amazing Spider-Man, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay.