Walter Jones (actor)
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| Born: | November 30, 1970 (age 36) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | actor, dancer |
| Website: | Official site |
Walter Emanuel Jones (born November 30, 1970) is an American actor known for playing the role of Zack Taylor, the Black Power Ranger on the hit television series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Career
Jones played the character of Zack Taylor, the original Black Ranger in the Power Rangers universe. He was written out of the series midway through the second season, apparently due to disagreements over wages and fee, and was replaced by Johnny Yong Bosch. Jones returned to Power Rangers in the Lost Galaxy season (1999) where he played the voice of Hexuba's Nightmare Monster in the episode "Dream Battle"; he also acted in an important episode of Power Rangers: Wild Force (2002) entitled Forever Red in which many previous Red Rangers teamed up. Again, he did not appear as his original character, Zack, but rather provided the voice for one of the antagonists, a general in the Machine Empire named Gerrok. Die-hard fans of the original series have applauded this. He was also one of the special commentators, along with fellow co-star Amy Jo Johnson, on the "1993" episode of I Love the '90s. He also reunited with Austin St. John (with whom he formed a close friendship during their time together on the show) as co-host for a special airing of the original pilot episode of Power Rangers called "The Lost Episode".
Jones was the very first actor to do voicework for any character other than a Ranger (mainly for monsters or villains) on a Power Rangers show after having a role as a Ranger himself. Other former Rangers who would do voicework after Jones included Archie Kao, Catherine Sutherland, Jason Faunt, Valerie Vernon, and Sean Cw Johnson.
Jones had major roles in the independent movies, The Dogwalker and Backyard Dogs. He has appeared in other well-known productions, including a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the episode "Fear, Itself" and the Disney Channel Original Movie, Brink!. He also appeared as Harlan Band in the Nickelodeon series Space Cases, his second role as a main character and as a teenager. He guest starred in an episode of Family Matters as Kissel, and portrayed a supporting character in the first season of The Shield named Rondell Robinson, a drug dealer.
Jones also had a major role in the backyard wrestling movie Backyard Dogs, which spent time as the lowest-rated movie on the Internet Movie Database. As of December 2006 it was sitting at #4. Jones provided the voice of a main character in the video game Freedom Fighters; he played a character known as The Kid.
[edit] Personal life
Jones was raised on the west side of Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Chula Vista High School. Jones has focused on teaching and performing salsa dancing and placed first in the 2004 Mayan International Salsa Championship.
To this day, he still keeps in touch with Austin St. John. It is unknown as to whether or not he keeps in touch with other MMPR castmates.[citation needed] He is also friends with actor Wally Wingert; Walter persuaded Wally to start work on PR, which landed him the role of Psycho Blue in Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy.
Jones attended the funeral for his fellow MMPR Cast member Thuy Trang.[citation needed] When Jones appeared in the 1993 episode of I Love the '90s, he mentioned that people would come up to him and ask why he, as an African-American, was the Black Ranger, and why the Asian girl (Thuy Trang) was the Yellow Ranger.
