Thurman Dalrymple Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan to Ruth (Holm) and Thurman Dalrymple entrepreneurs in Birmingham, Michigan and San Diego, California. He is of Finnish, Scottish, and Irish decent. He is an identical-twin to brother Trent Dalrymple who lives in Michigan, and he also has two sisters, Ellen Anderson and Wendy Dalrymple. Thurman and his wife, Linda (Lewandowski) Dalrymple have been married since April 7, 1979 and have two children, Jessica Dalrymple & Thurman John "T.J." Dalrymple III. Thurman admits he has owned over 30 cars and trucks over the years, as well as motorcycles, boats, and several vintage cars and trucks. He and his brother also shared a band where Thurman was a drummer and Trent was on the guitar, where they both found their attraction to the stage and performing. Thurman graduated from Andover High School, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Then while attending Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan Thurman was encouraged by his guidance counselor to include acting classes to his Communication Arts degree program, and this is where he met his extremely supportive and profound acting teacher, Adeline Herschfeld-Medalia, and began his training in theatre and performing at the university Barn Theatre and on-campus plays.

After 4 years of marriage and the birth of their two children Thurman was invited to return to Oakland University to audition for the part of the doctor in the play "A Month in the Country" and then the narrator in "Who am I this Time" soon after which he landed both and performed. Thurman loved the stage and continued his study in the performing arts.

When Thurman and his family moved to San Diego, California in 1990 he worked in real estate, then eventually began his several years of training in commercial acting & voiceover at Multi Media Arts with Dru Scott, as well as character analysis and scene study in "method acting" at the Rehearsal Room studying under Carey Scott who is a successful actor and teacher, and former student of the famous Stella Adler. Thurman soon began helping SDSU and USC graduate film students by performing in their film projects for several years as well as over one year performing in dinner theatre. In 2002 Thurman signed with his two talent agents in both Los Angeles and San Diego and in 2005 was accepted and joined the Screen Actors Guild and later AFTRA.

Over the years, Thurman has performed on stage in theatre, dinner-theatre, on TV, movies, and industrial programs and commercials. He lives between San Diego and Los Angeles, and is very active with both of his representatives, in San Diego, Shamon Freitas Model and Talent Agency since 2003 and in Los Angeles, Clear Talent Group since 2015. Thurman enjoys golfing, bowling, camping, landscaping, handyman projects, spending time with his family, working at his son's fabricating shop, and generally all things outdoors.