Heather Thomas, best known for her role alongside Lee Majors in *The Fall Guy*, celebrated her 66th birthday on September 8.
Once on track for a highly successful Hollywood career, her life took a significant turn after a startling hospital visit following the show’s finale.
When her mother unexpectedly arrived on set, Thomas rushed to the hospital in Santa Monica, fearing an emergency with her father. However, upon her arrival, her family and friends informed her that her father, Leon, was fine—it was her well-being they were worried about.
This hospital visit marked the beginning of a major shift for the 28-year-old, reshaping both her personal life and career.
Blessed with movie star talent and natural beauty, often compared to icons like Farrah Fawcett and Heather Locklear, Thomas seemed destined for stardom. At just 14, she hosted NBC’s *Talking with a Giant*, where she and other teens interviewed celebrities. Seeking to elevate her career as an actress, director, and writer, she pursued film and theater studies at UCLA. While still in school, she landed a role in the short-lived comedy series *Co-Ed Fever* in 1979.
In 1980, Thomas, born in Connecticut, secured her breakout role in *The Fall Guy*, playing Jody Banks, a stuntwoman and bounty hunter, opposite Majors. The action series made her a beloved figure among male audiences, who viewed her as a sex symbol—a label she had mixed feelings about. Reflecting on the era, she admitted, “There’s obligatory condescension that goes with that… you fill that archetype, the blonde bimbo. But at the time, I was just having fun.”
However, her fun was accompanied by a growing drug habit, which started long before her *Fall Guy* fame. Thomas revealed that her drug use began in sixth grade, where she experimented to help maintain her high grades. “I was taking acid and making straight A’s,” she recalled, believing it was a way to expand her mind.
As Heather Thomas transitioned from childhood to adulthood, so did her drug use. While attending UCLA, she began using cocaine, and by 1981, just a year into her role on *The Fall Guy*, her substance abuse worsened.
Feeling pressure to maintain her status as a sex symbol, the 5-foot-7 actress developed an obsession with her weight. She began taking Lasix, a diuretic that left her feeling extremely lethargic. To combat the exhaustion, she relied on cocaine to boost her energy.
“At first, I felt like I was getting my money’s worth,” Thomas recalled, explaining that the drug allowed her to stay up all night and work through the next day. Though she claimed never to use cocaine on set, she admitted, “Cocaine is not approved of on sets. It’s not clubby to do it anymore. It is just a private hell.”
However, a source close to the actress contradicted her, saying that her drug problem was becoming widely known in the industry. “People knew she had a problem,” the source told *People*, suggesting it was affecting her career.
As her weight plummeted from 125 to 105 pounds, Thomas was often falling asleep between takes. She confessed, “Sometimes I was in a minicoma.” Things came to a head when she passed out in front of co-star Lee Majors, prompting him to call her manager, who then contacted her mother.
After filming the final episode of *The Fall Guy*, her mother, Gladdy Ryder—a former special education teacher—showed up on set and told her that her father was in the hospital. Rushing to St. John’s Hospital, Thomas was greeted by family and friends, who were there to support her admission into a three-week drug rehabilitation 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.”
