Roy was born on April 6, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois. During his formative years, he 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. After a hitch in 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, Hôpital central (1963); 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 Long, Hot Summer (1965) -- the TV version of the film, Les feux de l'été (1958) -- 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 Le fugitif (1963)-like sci-fi series, Les envahisseurs (1967). Success with this popular show also led to marriage to first wife, Lynn Loring, who acted with him in the show as well as in the movie, Danger, planète inconnue (1969) (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 features as L'odyssée du Hindenburg (1975), 747 en péril (1974) and Blue Bayou (1990), Thinnes has remained essentially a TV star. Among his post-"The Invaders" TV-series roles was "Dr. James Whitman" on The Psychiatrist (1970), "Capt. (and later Maj.) Holms" on Tant qu'il y aura des hommes (1980), "Nick Hogan" on Falcon Crest (1981) (who, in 1983, married "Victoria Gioberti" [Jamie Rose] in a highly-rated ceremony) and the dual role of "Roger Collins" and "Rev. Trask" in the 1991 prime-time revival, La malédiction de Collinwood (1991). Roy's more recent appearances on the X Files: aux frontières du réel (1993) put him back in the forefront. He revived his role as the enigmatic alien, "Jeremiah Smith", a turnabout role series creator Chris Carter renewed for Roy in the February 25, 2001 episode, X Files: aux frontières du réel: This Is Not Happening (2001).
