Talk:Thomas Haden Church

Sandman
Willian Baker aka Sandman? I don't think so.

Maybe it's because I've been aware of Church for years, but is he really best known for his role as Sandman? SineQ (talk) 18:30, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Hispanic?
He's categorized as an Hispanic American???? That can't be right. SmartGuy 20:11, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I doubt whoever categorized him as that has a reliable source. I also removed the Quesada reference because TV tom is not a good source. Mad Jack O&#39;Lantern 05:48, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree with TV tom. I knew Tom Church when he was Tom Quesada in Dallas in the late 70's and early 80's. Not sure about the spelling of the name though. (Casada?).
 * Regarding (Casada) - If that's how you remember the spelling of his name then it can be assumed that it's Irish in origin as "Casada" is a variant of the surname "Cassidy".--71.189.212.127 05:49, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

For whatever it's worth, his real name is also listed as Quesada on IMDB. Not sure if this means anything. --drumwolf

Birthplace?
He's listed as being born in two different places: Ft Worth & El Paso. Which one is it?

Surname
He's generally referred to, here and elsewhere, as "Church", which suggests that Haden is his middle name. Yet we say that he was born "Thomas McMillen ... and later changed his surname to Haden Church". That seems to have been lifted straight from IMdB, which is notorious for having long lists of trivia etc all written by different people, with conflicting spellings of all sorts of things and no editorial control. We need to come to a view on this: his surname is either "Church", or "Haden Church", and then we should refer to him consistently by the appropriate surname. -- JackofOz (talk) 19:34, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Date of birth
The sources we use quote at least 3 diferent birthdates:
 * Voice Chasers: 17 June 1961
 * IMdB et al: 17 June 1960
 * Film Reference: 31 March 1960.

What’s it to be? -- JackofOz (talk) 19:39, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Replying to both your posts - It wasn't the IMDB - I added the "Haden Church" stuff from a 1992 newspaper article cited in here. The website Who2 seems to have picked up on this and the various conflicting info on his birth info - . I didn't notice, but I do now, that the 1992 newspaper piece mentions that he was actually born in California. The California Birth Index lists "Thomas R. McMillen" as born on June 17, 1960. Looks like a bingo. As for how to refer to him - I guess "Haden Church" could work since he wasn't born with either name - but I am not sure. All Hallow&#39;s Wraith (talk) 07:43, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Church Facts
Hi all,

He was born on 17 Jun 1960 in Yolo County, California. (Ref. California Birth Index). He has an older sister and a younger brother who were also born in Yolo to his mother, Maxine and an unknown McMillan. His birth name was Thomas Richard McMillan. I don't know what happened to McMillen (whether death or divorce), but his mother moved her children to Texas and married George Quesada on 14 Feb 1969 in Tarrent County, Texas. (Ref. Texas Marriage Index) George had two girls and one boy from his first marriage. (Ref. Texas and North Carolina Birth Indexes). His first wife died. George and Maxine had no children together, but all of the siblings took the Quesada name. Two sisters were married in Laredo, Webb, Texas (both under quesada) and one in Travis County, Texas (also Quesada) His brother Andrew goes by Quesada as well. That is where the hispanic connection is. His step-father, two step-sisters and one step-brother are hispanic (actually George's children are half hispanic because their mother was from North Carolina.) Having been raised in Laredo and Harlingen, it's quite probable that Thomas speaks at least some degree of Spanish. It's almost mandatory. Believe me, I grew up in Laredo (green eyed blonde gringa girl) but speak Spanish fluently.

This was no easy line to trace, I will say!

Texas Border Chick (talk) 00:31, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

The topic of marriage
Tom met Mia Zottoli (mother of his daughter Cody) while filming Rolling Kansas. She was cast as the stripper in the movie. Mia Zottoli is also known as Ava Lake and has been a porn star for many years. Although she has tried to assume the surname Haden Church recently, they are unmarried. They had a brief relationship that led to them conceiving a little girl while filming in 2004. He has continued to support his daughter financially but is no longer in a relationship of any kind with Mia Zottoli. He is currently engaged to Cindy Sakins of Dallas, TX who is a well respected interior designer in the DFW metroplex. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nevernaked4$ (talk • contribs) 02:19, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

I was a bit surprised to read this article and see Mia Zottoli referred to as a "porn star". She has never done a hardcore film, merely those softcore romps featured on late-night cable TV. Calling her a porn star is the wrong terminology– yes, those films are often termed "softcore porn", but no real sex takes place, and a "porn star" or "pornographic actor" almost always refers to someone whose work is in hardcore, real-sex adult films. Woodson (talk) 20:20, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

commercials
Is it appropriate to add these to an actor's curriculum vitae? As far as I can tell, he is the voice in the current DirectTV ads. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 01:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Real Thomas Haden Church Facts
Since I have known Tom just about his entire life, I will see if I can give some correct information: Tom was born in Woodland, Yolo County, California on June 17, 1960. His birth name was Thomas Richard McMillen. He was the 2nd child of 3 born to Wanda Maxine Sanders and Carl Richard McMillen (all 3 of their children were born in Woodland). They divorced in 1962 and Maxine moved her 3 children to El Paso, TX. Four yrs later, they moved to Ft. Worth where Maxine met and married George Quesada, a widower with 3 children. (George was Costa Rican on his father's side and Italian on his mother's side.) George adopted Maxine's 3 children and Maxine adopted George's 3 children in 1970 at the Tarrant County Courthouse. Carl McMillen's name was removed from Maxine's childrens' birth certificates and replaced with George's name. From Ft. Worth, the family moved to Laredo in 1971, then to Harlingen in 1977, where Tom graduated from Harlingen High School. Tom legally changed his name to Haden Church shortly after his career began. His younger brother, Andrew, also changed his last name to Church a few years later. Tom's sister has been married for 35 yrs and lives in Texas. Tom has 2 half-sisters and a half-brother from Carl McMillen's second marriage. Tom's biological father, Carl McMillen, died in April 2008. His step-father, George Quesada, died in July 2012. His mother, Maxine, is still living in Texas. He has a daughter, Cody Leigh Church, born in 2004. Tom also is financially supporting Cody's half-sister, Camilla, that Mia Zottoli gave birth to while engaged to Tom. Although engaged several times to different women, he is not currently engaged to anyone. Tom has never been married.Kleentx (talk) 23:11, 1 March 2013 (UTC)kleentxKleentx (talk) 23:11, 1 March 2013 (UTC)March 1, 2013


 * Sorry, but Wikipedia uses published facts, and your recollection is not published, as far as I know. Please see the guideline at WP:No original research. Thanks for wanting to make this biography as factual as possible! Binksternet (talk) 23:18, 1 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I took your facts as search terms which allowed me to put much of this information into the article, accompanied by citations. I trust this is better than before! Binksternet (talk) 01:15, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
 * An IP editor has been trying to change his birth place to Texas, so I loaded up a few of the sources to see what they say. It's not easy to reliably piece together Church's biography.  One thing that struck me was that the E! Online source we had in the article said his birth name was Thomas Haden Church.  That's contradicted by pretty much everything else, and it's a pretty poor-quality source to start with.  I'm removing that and ignoring anything in it.  The Deseret News and TV Guide both say he was born in California and raised in Texas.  AllMovie also says he was  born in Yolo, California.  None of the other sources give a specific city.  I don't know where this Woodland thing comes from, except from the personal account above.  I'm going to quote AllMovie and say Yolo.  The stuff about his parents seems a bit speculative, as it's cobbled together from obituaries in local newspapers.  One doesn't mention Church at all, and the other only mentions "Thomas Hayden Church", which I guess is a typo.  I think we should try to find something where he definitively speaks about his parents rather than the patchwork sourcing we've got now. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 05:54, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Broken Trail
Broken Trail is one of the best films I have ever seen and believe me, I see a lot. I would love to see your site show little clips of the films you star in and I believe you should make another film with Robert Duvall in Broken Trail 2. There is sooooo many things you could do to continue where the story ended. Please consider doing this. Robert is not a young man now and it would be a great time to do this. I watch Broken Trail on a constant basis. I know I have watched this film at least 100 times. GO FOR IT!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.33.23.61 (talk) 13:05, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 08:37, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Number of children
The sources say nothing about two children. According to IMDb, he has only fathered 1 daughter with Mia Zottoli (Cody Haden Church born 2004). https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0583915/bio/ Avestaboy (talk) 17:56, 27 June 2024 (UTC)