Born in Needles, California and raised in Bakersfield, John worked as lifeguard, teacher, ditch digger and carpenter, as well as attempting to be a writer.
[1] Thomas and his brother took inspiration from a joke circulating Hollywood concerning the Rocky franchise and wrote a screenplay based on it.
Thomas worked on a number of Hollywood productions through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, such as The Rescue (1988), Two-Fisted Tales (1992) and Mission to Mars (2000).
Along with his brother, he created the short-lived TV series Hard Time on Planet Earth.
Scheduled opposite NBC's Unsolved Mysteries and ABC's Growing Pains on Wednesdays, Hard Time on Planet Earth ranked 65th out of 81 programs upon its premiere.