[1] With a career spanning five decades he remains a regular presence on Canadian movie screens and television.

Thomson has portrayed a number of historical figures including Samuel Lount, Edsel Ford, Frederick Banting, Duncan Campbell Scott, Mitchell Sharp, and James Cross.

[3] In May 2015 Thomson received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

Eric Peterson performed in his honour at the gala celebrating the laureates at the National Arts Centre.

On the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, in which nearly 3,600 Canadians died, he co-created, with lighting designer Martin Conboy, a commemoration in which the name of each fallen soldier was projected onto the National War Memorial.