History
Born Thomas Elliott III, Thomas Jane graduated from high school in 1987 and worked as a mechanic until he discovered that he wanted to be an actor. At age 18 he moved to Hollywood and slept rough in his car, busking for spare change among other things until landing small roles in film and TV put him on the road to fame; two of his early roles including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "He is known popularly for his roles in "Deep Blue Sea", "Dreamcatcher", Jonathan Hensleigh's 2004 reboot of "The Punisher", Stephen King's "The Mist" and HBO's long running TV show "Hung". He has also portrayed Mitch Hunter in the "Mutant Chronicles" film, and Joe Miller in the "The Expanse" series.
He has a very illustrious film career from before his days as a comic book writer and businessman, though, also including strong supporting and leading performances in "The Thin Red Line", "Face/Off", "Magnolia", "Boogie Nights", "61*", and acclaimed real-life biopic "Stander".
From 2004-2005, while working with long-serving Punisher MAX cover-artist Tim Bradstreet to promote the new Punisher movie, Thomas Jane suffered a motor-accident and began experiencing strange nightmares due to the painkillers he was taking. Explaining his dreams and writing them down as part of a story, the actor bonded with Bradstreet over ideas of a new comic book for the story.
Bringing in legendary artist Steve Niles to help the actor make his dreams/nightmares a reality, the comic book Bad Planet and a new business partnership were born and Jane, Bradstreet and Niles set to work on Raw Studios. Several years later, the company successfully produced many new titles and took one of them, Dark Country, into film production.
The Present
Thomas Jane has sacrificed a lot to get his company where it remains today as a contender within both the comics and film industries, including losing out to lead roles in the likes of the 'Jonah Hex' movie, 'Watchmen' (as The Comedian) and even the role of Rick Grimes in AMC's 'The Walking Dead' series. But regardless, it may be worth it as he has several promising film titles in the pipeline relating to his writing for Raw Studios.
Trivia
- Thomas Jane was once married to Aysha Hauer, daughter of Rutger Hauer.
- Reprised his role of Frank Castle unofficially in a phenomenal and well-received short fan film called 'Dirty Laundry'.
- Played a fictionalized version of himself for an episode of "Arrested Development".
- Is a guitarist.
- The actor is famed for walking around in public... barefoot.
- Turned down Lionsgate's proposed sequel to 2004's The Punisher (working title War Zone) over creative differences. Jane cited that Lionsgate wasn't doing the character justice and that he wanted more of a "Death Wish" and "Taxi Driver" approach. He and director Hensleigh were promptly replaced by B-Movie director/stunt woman Lexi Alexander and Irish born English actor Ray Stevenson.
- Voiced Frank Castle in the successful THQ action video game The Punisher.
- Voiced the character Jonah Hex in a short animated film called DC Showcase: Jonah Hex.
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