Background and career
David Farrington Thornton (born May 4, 1953) is an American actor. He has appeared in John Q, Home Alone 3 as Earl Unger, Law & Order, The Notebook, and The Other Woman, among other roles. He is the husband of singer, songwriter and actress Cyndi Lauper.
Thornton was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. He is the son of professor Robert Donald Thornton (1917–2006), who taught English at Harvard University among other institutions, and Grace Ellen (née Baker; 1919–2019). He graduated from Hamilton College and Yale Drama School and studied at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.
Thornton met singer Cyndi Lauper on the set of the film Off and Running. They married in November 1991 and have a son, Declyn Wallace, who was born in 1997. In 2005, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Thornton in Thornton v. Baron, which is considered a landmark decision in the New York real estate industry, specifically dealing with rent stabilization in New York.
In March 2026, a lawsuit regarding Declyn's alleged 2020 sexual assault was filed naming Thornton as the defendant. Thornton was accused of having “enabled” the alleged incident “because he leased the penthouse" where the alleged sexual assault took place and “failed to take any action to supervise, restrict, or prevent his son from using the premises to perpetrate sexual violence” while knowing of the alleged “prior sexual violence against women and prior settlements of claims for similar conduct” regarding Declyn.
