C. Thomas Howell (born Christopher Thomas Howell on December 7, 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an American actor. He appeared in a minor role (credited as Tom Howell) in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He also starred as the lead in the classic Francis Ford Coppola movie The Outsiders as Ponyboy Curtis, and in the 1990 feature film Side Out.
His acting career began in television at the age of four, when he was a regular on the TV series Little People; he went on to appear on two other series: Two Marriages and Into the Homeland.
He has produced Hope Ranch (2002) and To Protect and Serve (1992).
He was married to actress Rae Dawn Chong, with whom he co-starred in Soul Man (1986).
The hardcore band Botch named a song after him called C. Thomas Howell As The "Soul Man", yet the song is not about him. Today, he is remarried to wife Sylvie Anderson and has three kids Isabelle, Dashiell, and Liam.
