Just The Facts
Birthday: November 20
Hails From: St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
She’s The One: Married Paloma Jonas in Mexico on April 5, 2015
Family Of Four: The Thompsons welcomed son Bowie Banjo on May 23, 2016 and daughter Rome Coco on September 20, 2017.
Port Charles Past: Thompson played Dr. Patrick Drake on GH from 2005-15 and earned five Emmy nominations for his work.
Co-Star Kudos: “At work, everybody really gets along. Jess [Walton, Jill] and I have a really great relationship. I really adore her, but I think everybody does. Peter [Bergman, Jack] is just a great man. I don’t really see anybody outside of work that often. Gina [Tognoni, Phyllis] goes back to New York a lot on weekends, Amelia [Heinle, Victoria] has got her family on weekends, and of course I have mine. Bryton [James, Devon] is an awesome dude. I don’t ever get to work with him, but I always love seeing him. He’s always got a big smile on his face.”
It’s been two years since Jason Thompson left GH’s Patrick in his rear-view mirror — and he has no regrets. “I mean this with the utmost respect for my time there, for the people that I worked with for a long time and the network and the show, but it’s been a fantastic decision for me, personally, and for my family,” says the actor. “I just felt like I needed a change. Ten years was a long time. I felt the character had done his job, and it was time for me to move on.”
He was also looking to stretch himself as an artist. “I needed to kind of double down on myself and figure out if I could still do this as a profession, as an actor,” he explains. “I knew that I could show up and do the work and still care a lot about it, but could I reinvent myself, or was I getting so comfortable with Patrick that I wasn’t going to be able to do anything else again? And that scared me more than anything.”
Thompson is thrilled to have landed in Genoa City, playing a part that connects him to a good majority of the canvas. “I couldn’t be happier at Y&R,” he declares. “I’m really confident and excited about the overall team that we have, my relationship with Mal [Young, executive producer/head writer] is great, and I love working with the people I work with — Gina [Tognoni, Phyllis] and Peter [Bergman, Jack] and Amelia [Heinle, Victoria] and Daniel [Goddard, Cane] — and I just really love this character. I feel a lot more free playing Billy than I ever did with Patrick. I think he’s a really perfect character for me right now. I’m surprised it’s been two years, because it feels like it’s been half that time, but at the same time I feel comfortable where I’m at. I haven’t looked back once.”
Steven Bergman
Thompson’s life has changed dramatically since his days in Port Charles. The actor and his wife, Paloma, are now parents to Bowie, 19 months, and Rome Coco, who was born in September. “When I first decided to leave GH, we didn’t know we were pregnant,” he recalls. “I think we found out we were having a baby when YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS kind of became a question, and when I look back on it, I was pretty nervous about starting this job and taking on this character and then having a child. Was it going to work? There was a lot of fear, a lot of excitement, a lot of quiet conversations with myself, and there was a lot of hard work and putting my nose down and showing up on the day and trusting my preparation and trusting the work that I’ve done.”
Rome was born at home, and Thompson reports, “It was amazing. It happened very quickly; it was 45 minutes until she was born right there at the foot of our bed. It was a Wednesday, and by noon we were having some avocado on toast and we were just like, ‘Okay, I guess it’s the four of us now.’ Just like that. So, it was pretty magical.” Welcoming a new baby has deepened Thompson’s bond with his son. “I didn’t foresee my love for Bowie growing even stronger,” he marvels. “I had more admiration and respect and love for Bowie, just the way that he handled it. The amount of love that he has for his sister already really kind of got me, and it still does. He’s just so sweet with her. It just gives me hope in humanity.”
With his home life and work life in such perfect harmony, Thompson can’t help but savor his good fortune. “It’s been invigorating,” he enthuses. “The fact that I’m an actor and I get to work very, very often and I still get weeks off at a time? I couldn’t be more grateful for that. I want to keep challenging myself. I feel like this character does that. It’s a great situation that I’m in right now. I really love going to work every day, and then I love coming home to a house full of laughing and screaming. We just lay on the couch and say, ‘This is fantastic right now.’ ”
What’s In A Name?
The Thompsons chose unique names for both of their children, and each moniker has a story behind it. “We were in Italy when we conceived Bowie, and I always loved the city Rome,” Thompson explains. “It was one of those names that really stuck with us, and I had never heard of it before. I found out later on after we were pregnant that Rome [Flynn, ex-Zende] was on BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. I saw his name on one of the parking signs one time and it was the first time I’d ever seen it. So for almost 10 months we were calling the baby Rome Bowie because we didn’t know which one it was going to be, and then when it was a boy, Bowie was his name. We got pregnant pretty quick after, and we were kind of secretly freaking out if we were going to have another boy, because we didn’t have a boy’s name, so when we found out it was a girl, we were like, ‘Oh, thank God.’ So, her full name is Rome Coco. We conceived Rome in Mexico on one of our trips and the house that we were staying at was called the Coco House. So her name is Rome Coco.”
