Emanuel Thomas; Actor, Restaurateur

Emanuel Thomas, 65, actor who established the San Francisco restaurant Josephine’s and a catering company to feed prominent entertainers and politicians. A native of Bessemer, Ala., Thomas moved to California with his family and studied drama in San Mateo and at San Francisco State College. After serving in the Army, he became an actor, studying with Lee Grant and Uta Hagen, among others, in New York. Working in Los Angeles, he appeared in such television shows as “General Hospital,” “Mission Impossible,” “Wild Wild West” and “Batman.” Billed as Paul Thomas, he also starred in small theater productions including Edward Albee’s “Death of Bessie Smith” at the Northridge Theater Guild. But Thomas was better known as a chef, restaurateur and caterer. He opened Josephine’s in San Francisco, named for one of his idols, Josephine Baker, and dished up an eclectic cuisine he described as “Continental soul, which is American with a twist of French, Italian, a pinch of Oriental, West Africa and a dash of Caribbean.” One of his specialties was “grits souffle.” Celebrities flocked to the eatery and hired him to cater major political fund-raisers for President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Gov. Gray Davis and Jesse Jackson. Entertainers also hired the popular Thomas, among them Robert Guillaume, Diahann Carroll, Barry Gordy, Lalo Schifrin, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, Carol Channing, Larry Hagman and Marvin Davis. Thomas had acted and cooked in the Los Angeles area for the last two decades, and before his death already had bookings to cater parties for the Democratic National Convention here in August. On May 20 in Los Angeles of a heart attack.