Roy was born April 6, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois. During his formative years, Roy had wanted to become a doctor or football player - or, if one wants to believe his early press releases, both. He started in show business at a radio station, where he did everything: engineering, DJ shows, news and dramatizations. That led to an interest in acting in general. When he left the Army he went to New York and then to California, where he started working in episodes of TV shows. Having made his professional acting debut as a teen-aged firebug in a 1957 pilot for the never-sold TV series "Chicago 212", Thinnes spent several lean years "between engagements," working as a hotel clerk, vitamin salesman and copy boy to Chicago columnist Irv Kupcinet. His first regular TV work was as Phil Brewer on the daytime soap opera General Hospital; during this period, the young actor became the television equivalent of a matinée idol, sparking a barrage of protest mail when he briefly left GH in pursuit of other acting jobs. Aggressively campaigning for the starring role of Ben Quick on the 1965 weekly TV version of the 1958 film The Long, Hot Summer, Thinnes won the part, as well as a whole new crop of adoring female fans. While "Summer" was unsuccessful, Thinnes enjoyed a longer run as David Vincent on the Fugitive-like sci-fi series The Invaders. Success with this popular sci-fi also led to marriage to first wife Lynn Loring, who acted with him in the show as well as in the movie Journey to the Far Side of the Sun [aka Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun]; she is now a CBS film executive. They parted in 1984. Though he'd occasionally show up in such theatrical features as The Hindenburg, Airport 1975 and Blue Bayou, Thinnes has remained essentially a TV star. Among his post-Invaders TV-series roles was Dr. James Whitman on The Psychiatrist, Capt (and later Major) Holms on From Here to Eternity, Nick Hogan on Falcon Crest (who, in 1983, married Victoria Gioberti [Jamie Rose] in a highly-rated ceremony), and the dual role of Roger Collins and Reverend Trask in the 1991 prime-time revival of Dark Shadows. Roy's more recent appearances on the The X-Files put him back in the forefront. He revived his role as the enigmatic alien Jeremiah Smith, a turnabout role Chris Carter renewed for Roy in the February 25, 2001 episode (#8.14) of The X-Files, called "This Can't Be Happening."


Was originally hired to play Arthur Adamson in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot (1976), but the Hitchcock had always wanted William Devane for the part. Devane was originally unavailable, so Hitchcock began filming with Thinnes in the role. When Devane became suddenly available one month into filming, Hitchcock unceremoniously fired Thinnes without explanation and replaced him with Devane. (Hitchcock later claimed he was dissatisfied with Thinnes' performance.) The way Hitchcock handled the firing led to a famously public confrontation between the two men in a crowded Chasen's Restaurant. Thinnes can be seen in several publicity stills from the production, but no footage apparently exists.