RIP Mr. Jones ... You're Home Now ~
Posted on 09/02/2015 2:04:15 PM PDT by Borges
Actor Dean Jones, best known for his acting work in such Disney films as “The Love Bug” and “That Darn Cat,” died of Parkinson’s disease Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 84.
In addition to his appearances in films such as “Under the Yum-Yum Tree,” “The Shaggy D.A.,” “The Million Dollar Duck,” “Snowball Express,” “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” and “Beethoven,” Jones also had roles in five Broadway shows and appeared in numerous television series and specials. He appeared in 46 films over the course of his career.
The actor made his Broadway debut in “There Was a Little Girl” with Jane Fonda in 1960, and went on to star in Broadway’s “Under the Yum-Yum Tree” that same year, before starring in the 1963 film adaptation with Jack Lemmon.
Jones’ other Broadway credits include the original role of “Bobby” in Harold Prince/Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” and Cap’n Andy in a national tour of “Showboat.”
MGM signed Jones to a contract, and he began with a small role in “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” He later played a DJ in 1957 Elvis Presley movie “Jailhouse Rock.”
Other film credits include “Any Wednesday,” “The New Interns,” “Never So Few,” “Other People’s Money,” “When Every Day Was the Fourth of July,” “A Brush With Time” and Tom Clancy’s “Clear and Present Danger.”
Jones was born in Decatur, Ala., and served in the Navy during the Korean War. He attended Kentucky’s Asbury University, which awarded him an honorary degree in 2002.
The actor was inducted into the Disney Legends Hall of Fame in 1995.
Jones is survived by his wife, writer Lory Basham Jones; three children, Caroline Jones, Deanna Demaree and Michael Pastick; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
He left Company soon after it opened because he objected to it morally I guess. It was one of the first Broadway musicals to deal with adult themes - divorce etc...
Thanks for that URL, it was an inspiring article. Dean Jones may have started off on the moral wrong foot, but he ended up just fine, as one can see.
Dittos.
Thanks for the post, I confess I haven’t followed Dean’s career as perhaps I might, but now I have an incentive to reacquaint myself with his work and perhaps others will too.
I didn’t know that. I saw Him in a documentary on Stephen Sondheim.
So do I and still do.
He and Buddy Hackett in The Love Bug was as good a pairing as there ever was.
Thank you. I didn’t know he had a good singing voice.
Saw him in lots of Saturday Matinee movies back in the day. RIP Mr.Jones...thanks for the good clean fun.
For some reason I was thinking Tommy Lee Jones is his brother. does anybody know about that??
Met him once at the studio when they put his hands in cement. Loved the Herbie movie with Buddy Hackett.
Great guy. R.I.P.
RIP Mr. Jones ... You're Home Now ~
Just another little piece of our innocence has left us.
I grew up with Dean Jones’ movies and my favorite one was, “The Ugly Dachshund.” Oh, if only such decent movies were mainstream today. RIP Dean.
Start with The Love Bug.
Wikipedia has Tommy Lee Jones parents as His mother, Lucille Marie (née Scott), was a police officer, school teacher, and beauty shop owner, and his father, Clyde C. Jones, was an oil field worker.
Dean Jones parents are Andrew Guy Jones, a traveling construction worker, and Nolia Elizabeth White Jones.
So, I guess it's possible ;)
Love that movie. So much so that I have a Siamese named “Canoe” and an original movie poster framed.
Gotcha!! Thanks
OMG!! 84!!!!! I better check my calendar....I must e WAY older than I thought!!! RIP... Dean Jones.
As a child, I had wanted to own a Volkswagon. RIP, he was an actor who only wanted to entertain audiences, had no agenda otherwise.
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