Biography: Thomas Carter (born July 17, 1953) is an American film and television director known for Swing Kids, Save the Last Dance with Julia Stiles, and Coach Carter with Samuel L. Jackson. As an actor, Carter is probably best known for his work on the television series The White Shadow, playing James "Hollywood" Hayward, a high school basketball star with a high IQ for justice. Description above from the Wikipedia article Thomas Carter (film director), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.