Dean Jones (actor)

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Dean Jones
Born Dean Carroll Jones
January 25, 1931 (1931-01-25) (age 77)
Decatur, Alabama, U.S.

Dean Carroll Jones (born January 25, 1931) is an American actor.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Jones was born in Decatur, Alabama, the son of Nolia Elizabeth (née White) and Andrew Guy Jones, who was a traveling construction worker.[1] Dean Jones served in the United States Navy during the Korean War, where he was responsible, in part, for the reduction of VD in his unit by putting on shows for the men during shore leave,[2] after which he worked at the Bird Cage Theater, at Knott's Berry Farm, in California.

[edit] Stage

Dean Jones' LP for Capitol Records.
Dean Jones' LP for Capitol Records.

After having appeared in a string of minor film and TV roles, Jones made his Broadway debut (along with Jane Fonda) in the short-lived 1960 play There Was a Little Girl. He had stepped into the role in Boston with only one day's notice.[3] Later that year, he played Dave Manning in the Broadway comedy Under the Yum-Yum Tree, a role he would repeat in the 1963 movie version starring Jack Lemmon. After achieving success in film and TV, Jones was set to return to Broadway as the star of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's new musical Company. But during out-of-town previews, Jones was uncomfortable with the negative reaction to his character he received from the audience and asked to withdraw from the show. Director Harold Prince agreed to replace him with Larry Kert if Jones would open the show and record the cast album. Jones agreed and his performance is preserved on the original cast album (although it was Larry Kert who received the Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical). In 1986, Jones, by then a born-again Christian, starred in Into the Light, a musical about scientists and the Shroud of Turin, which closed four days after it opened. He made one more Broadway appearance in 1993 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in a special two-day concert staging of Company featuring most of the original Broadway cast.

[edit] Televison and Film

Jones starred in the NBC TV sitcom Ensign O'Toole in 1962 (during which time he recorded a record album, "Introducing Dean Jones," for Capitol Records), but he is best known for his work in a string of Disney films he made in the 1960s and 1970s, starting with the movie That Darn Cat! (actress Hayley Mills' last film at Disney). Jones' performance was so well-received that Disney continued to utilize him for such future movies as The Ugly Dachshund, Blackbeard's Ghost and Snowball Express. Jones' signature Disney role would be that of race car driver "Jim Douglas" in the highly successful Love Bug series. Jones appeared in two of the five feature films (The Love Bug and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo) and in a short-lived television series produced in 1982 and a made-for-TV movie in 1997.

He also appeared as the evil veterinarian, "Herman Varnick," in the popular family film Beethoven in 1992. Later, he did the voice of "George Newton" in TV series version of Beethoven.

[edit] Personal life

Jones' marriage failed in the late 1960s, and he got a divorce. Jones became a devout born-again Christian in 1973-1974 and has since appeared in several Christian movies. A noted conservative, Jones also testified in favor of a Constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to only heterosexuals.

Jones is semi-retired, and currently resides in California.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] Broadway Appearances

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/57/Dean-Jones.html
  2. ^ See Drew Marshall Interview, External Links
  3. ^ theatermania.com Peter Filichia article, "How Now, Dean Jones?"

[edit] External links

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