Short answers, pulled from the story.
Thomas Boleyn (c. 1477-1539) was an English diplomat and politician who served as one of Henry VIII's leading ambassadors. He was the father of Anne Boleyn and the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. He held the titles of Viscount Rochford, Earl of Wiltshire, and Earl of Ormond, and served as Lord Privy Seal from 1530.
Thomas Boleyn was ambassador to the Netherlands in 1512 and to France between 1518 and 1520. He made two missions as envoy to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in 1521 and 1523, and was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1523. In 1529, he joined a mission to both Charles V and Pope Clement VII to seek support for Henry's annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
On the 8th of December 1529, Thomas Boleyn was created Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond. His claims ran through his Irish Butler ancestry; neither English law nor Irish Brehon law recognized matrilineal descent, so both titles required royal intervention. Henry VIII pressed the rival claimant Piers Butler to renounce his Ormond claims, and Butler was compensated by being created Earl of Ossory five days later.
After the executions of Anne and George Boleyn in May 1536, Thomas Boleyn lost the office of Lord Privy Seal and left court in disgrace. In January 1538, Henry VIII restored the earldom of Ormond to the rival claimant Piers Butler, leaving Thomas Boleyn to share the title while he was still alive. He died at Hever Castle in Kent.
Thomas Boleyn is buried at St. Peter's Church in Hever, Kent, where his elaborate monumental brass survives. It depicts him in full Garter robes with the Garter badge on his left breast and the Garter around his left knee. His head rests on a helm topped by a falcon crest, his daughter Anne's heraldic badge, and his feet rest on a griffin.
Thomas Boleyn has been portrayed by multiple actors across film and television. Notable performances include Sir Michael Hordern in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Nick Dunning in the 2007 Showtime series The Tudors, and David Robb in Wolf Hall. Jack Shepherd and Mark Rylance each played the role in different film versions of The Other Boleyn Girl, in 2003 and 2008.