# Doug Jones (actor)

Douglas Jones (born May 24, 1960) is an American actor, contortionist, and mime artist. He is best known for portraying non-human creatures, usually via heavy make-up and visual effects. He has most notably collaborated with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, appearing in the films Mimic (1997), Hellboy (2004), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), Crimson Peak (2015), and The Shape of Water (2017).
Jones has also had roles in other films including Hocus Pocus (1993) and its sequel (2022), Tank Girl (1995), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Absentia (2011), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), and The Bye Bye Man (2017). He has appeared in the science fiction series Falling Skies (2013–15) and del Toro's horror series The Strain (2014–16). From 2017 to 2024, he portrayed Saru in the science fiction series Star Trek: Discovery. From 2019 to 2024, he portrayed Baron Afanas in vampire comedy show What We Do in the Shadows, appearing both with and without creature makeup.

## Early life

Jones was born in Indianapolis, the youngest of four brothers, and attended Bishop Chatard High School. He graduated from Ball State University, where he parlayed his background as a mime into portraying the school mascot "Charlie Cardinal."

## Career

Jones started his career in the television and movie industry as a 1980s advertising character, "Mac Tonight". He worked as a contortionist, saying, "You'd be surprised how many times that comes into play in commercials. They'll want somebody to hold a box of Tide funny or something. I once squished into a box for a commercial for relaxed fit jeans." In 1994, he appeared in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries as Gordon Page, Jr., a young man with autism who disappeared from a treatment center in 1991.
Although known mostly for his work under prosthetic makeup, such as the zombie William "Billy" Butcherson in the Walt Disney Pictures Halloween film Hocus Pocus, or the lead spy Morlock in the 2002 remake of the 1960 film The Time Machine, he has also performed without prosthetics in such films as Adaptation, Mystery Men, and Batman Returns, and indie projects such as Stefan Haves' Stalled, AntiKaiser Productions' Three Lives, Phil Donlon's A Series of Small Things, and as Cesare in David Fisher's 2005 remake of the 1920 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Jones played Abe Sapien in Hellboy; the voice was performed by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce in the first film, but Jones's voice was used in the sequel. Explaining the challenge of working so often in rubber suits and prosthetics, he notes, "I have to make that a part of my being and my physicality and again, acting is a full-body experience and that's a part of it when you're doing a costumed character."
In 2005, he worked again with Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, starring as the Faun in del Toro's multiple-Academy Award-winning Spanish-language fantasy/horror project Pan's Labyrinth. He also has a secondary role in the film as the Pale Man, a gruesome creature with a penchant for eating children. Working once more under heavy prosthetics in both roles, he was also required to learn large amounts of dialogue in Spanish, although ultimately his voice was redubbed by Pablo Adan. That same year also brought success for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the film receiving three awards at the Screamfest Horror Festival in Los Angeles, including the Audience Choice Award.
In 2006, Jones appeared in the feature films The Benchwarmers and Lady in the Water, and reprised his role as Abe Sapien by voicing the character in the new Hellboy Animated television project, recording two 75-minute animated films.
In February 2007, Jones's likeness was used for Nvidia's "Human Head" tech demo. In June 2007, he appeared in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as the Silver Surfer, though Laurence Fishburne provided the character's voice. He reprised his role as Abe Sapien in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, once more under the direction of del Toro, for which he provided both the voice and body performance. He played two other roles in the film: the Angel of Death and the Chamberlain, both under heavy prosthetics. In 2009, del Toro announced on BBC Radio that Jones would be playing the monster in his upcoming version of Frankenstein.
In 2007, Jones was disappointed to learn that his voice part of the Silver Surfer had been dubbed by another actor (Fishburne) when the film was released. Upon inquiry, he determined that studio pressure had been imposed in order to add more "names" to the movie. As Jones gained greater clout in the industry, he eventually was able to add a clause to his contracts ensuring that no English dialogue of his characters would be dubbed. Roles that include other languages may be dubbed, however. This came into play in Pan's Labyrinth – Jones learned enough Spanish to voice his characters. Still, the decision was made to use a native speaker in order to access the language's nuances adequately.
Jones starred as himself in Sockbaby 4, the fourth installment of the Internet martial arts comedy series Sockbaby.
Jones appeared in the French-language film Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), written and directed by French comic book author Joann Sfar and produced by Universal Europe. Jones played La Gueule ("The Mug"), the grotesque fantasy muse and malicious doppelganger who teases, guides, and accompanies Serge Gainsbourg throughout his life. He was fitted with prosthetics designed and created by the Academy Award-winning Spanish FX shop DDT Efectos Especiales, with whom he had already worked on Pan's Labyrinth; the FX technicians requested specifically that Jones be given the role of the Mug creature, due to his ability to perform (without complaining) with heavy prosthetics and elaborate special effects. As in Pan's Labyrinth, Jones performed his lines phonetically, this time speaking in French; his voice was redubbed by Éric Elmosnino, who also played Gainsbourg. Director Joann Sfar liked Jones's speech patterns so much that he asked Elmosnino to mimic them when he performed the creature's lines. The film was released in France on January 20, 2010.
In January 2010, Jones signed a book deal with Medallion Press to model a nonfiction comedic coffee table book called Mime Very Own Book, co-authored by Adam Mock and Scott Allen Perry and photographed by Eric Curtis. The book was due for publication in December 2011.
Jones plays Dr. Henry Vataber in the web series Universal Dead. In late June 2010, it was announced that Universal Dead would be made into a feature film. He appeared in the independent film The Candy Shop, a "modern fairy tale" shedding light upon child sex trafficking, created by the American film studio Whitestone Pictures.
Jones played the "Operator", a fictional entity based on the Internet myth known as the "Slender Man", in Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story, a 2015 film adaptation of the popular Marble Hornets YouTube series.
Jones was cast as Commander Saru, a non-human Kelpien in Star Trek: Discovery, which premiered September 24, 2017. That same year, Jones reunited with Guillermo del Toro, this time in a romantic lead role, the Amphibian Man (the "asset") in the Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water.
In 2014, Aurelio Voltaire released the song "The Devil and Mr. Jones" on his album Raised by Bats which is a tribute to the life and career of Doug Jones.
In 2022, Jones reprised his role as Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus 2.

## Personal life

Jones describes himself as a "dyed-in-the-wool Christian from the Midwest", to the point that he was initially apprehensive about his role in Hellboy due to the titular character's demonic nature.
In 1984, Jones married his college sweetheart, Laurie Pontoni. They relocated to Los Angeles in 1985 to further his acting career.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1987 | The Newlydeads | Tim | |
| 1990 | Night Angel | Ken | |
| 1991 | Carnal Crimes | Lang | Direct-to-video |
| 1992 | Batman Returns | Thin Clown | |
| 1993 | Hocus Pocus | William "Billy" Butcherson | |
| 1993 | Magic Kid | Clown in Office | Direct-to-video |
| 1995 | Tank Girl | Additional Ripper | |
| 1996 | Galgameth | Big Galgy | |
| 1997 | Mimic | Long John #2 | |
| 1997 | Warriors of Virtue | Yee | Voiced by Doug Parker |
| 1998 | Bug Buster | Mother Bug | |
| 1998 | Denial | Ghost | Direct-to-video |
| 1999 | Mystery Men | Pencilhead | |
| 1999 | Three Kings | Dead Iraqi Soldier | |
| 2000 | Stalled | Len | |
| 2000 | The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle | FBI Agent – Carrot | |
| 2000 | Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman | Dave | Direct-to-video |
| 2001 | Steven Spielberg's Movie | Donald Columbus | Short film |
| 2001 | Monkeybone | Yeti | |
| 2002 | Adaptation | Augustus Margary | |
| 2002 | Men in Black II | Joey | |
| 2002 | Side Effects | Seth | Short film |
| 2002 | The Time Machine | Spy Morlock | |
| 2003 | Stuck on You | Space Alien #2 | |
| 2004 | Three Lives | Mysterious Caller/Mortician | Short film |
| 2004 | Hellboy | Abe Sapien | Voiced by David Hyde Pierce |
| 2005 | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari | Cesare | |
| 2005 | Doom | Carmack Imp / Sewer Imp | |
| 2005 | A Series of Small Things | The Homeless Man | Short film |
| 2006 | The Benchwarmers | Number 7 Robot | Voice |
| 2006 | Lady in the Water | Tartutic #4 | |
| 2006 | Pan's Labyrinth | The Faun/The Pale Man | Voiced by Pablo Adán |
| 2006 | Hellboy: Sword of Storms | Abe Sapien | Voice; Direct-to-video |
| 2006 | Nora Breaks Free | Yoga Instructor | Short film |
| 2007 | Carnies | Ratcatcher | |
| 2007 | Hellboy: Blood and Iron | Abe Sapien | Voice; Direct-to-video |
| 2007 | Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | Norrin Radd / Silver Surfer | Voiced by Laurence Fishburne |
| 2007 | The Wager | Peter Barrett | |
| 2008 | Quarantine | Thin Infected Man | |
| 2008 | Sockbaby | Himself | Short film |
| 2008 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Abe Sapien/Angel of Death/The Chamberlin | |
| 2008 | The Job | Office Manager | Short film |
| 2009 | My Name Is Jerry | Jerry | |
| 2009 | Pie & Coffee | Homeless Man | Short film |
| 2009 | Super Capers | Special Agent Smith #1 | |
| 2009 | The Butterfly Circus | Otto | Short film |
| 2010 | The Cure | Samuel Bainer | Short film |
| 2010 | Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life | La Gueule | |
| 2010 | Legion | Ice Cream Man | |
| 2010 | Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer | Dr. Arthur | |
| 2010 | Sudden Death! | Jonathan Wright | Short film |
| 2010 | Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey | Zero/Razer | Voice |
| 2010 | The Candy Shop | Candy Shop Owner | Short film |
| 2010 | Absentia | Walter Lambert | |
| 2010 | Greyscale | Jamison | |
| 2010 | Rock Jocks | Smoking Jesus | |
| 2011 | End of the Road (1,2,3...Scream) | Randolph | |
| 2011 | The Tomorrow Machine | Ben | Short film |
| 2012 | It's Alive | Monster | Short film |
| 2012 | White Room: 20B3 | Fyn-Ke'al | Short film |
| 2012 | Men In Suits | Himself | Documentary |
| 2012 | The Watch | Hero Alien | |
| 2012 | Saint Alex | Mr. Vanderplook | Short film |
| 2012 | John Dies at the End | Robert North | |
| 2013 | Raze | Joseph | |
| 2013 | Hookah | Allen | Short film |
| 2013 | First Impressions | Suited Man | Short film |
| 2013 | Dust of War | Jebediah Strumm | |
| 2013 | Innocent Blood | Carl Grierr | |
| 2013 | Cruel Will | Adrian | |
| 2014 | Love in the Time of Monsters | Dr. Lincoln | |
| 2014 | Everlast | Suited Man | Short film |
| 2015 | Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story | The Operator | |
| 2015 | Crimson Peak | Ghosts of Edith's Mother/Lady Beatrice Sharpe | |
| 2016 | The Midnight Man | Vick | |
| 2016 | Ouija: Origin of Evil | Ghoul Marcus | |
| 2016 | Kiss the Devil in the Dark | Terrance/Dagon | Short film |
| 2016 | Han Solo: A Smuggler's Trade | Gyorsho | Short film |
| 2017 | The Bye Bye Man | The Bye Bye Man | |
| 2017 | We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew… | | Independent movie |
| 2017 | The Terror of Hallow's Eve | Scarecrow/The Trickster | |
| 2017 | The Danger Element | Doctor Elymas | |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water | Amphibian Man | |
| 2017 | Island in the Sun | Ranger | Short film |
| 2017 | 5th Passenger | Langdon | |
| 2018 | Gehenna: Where Death Lives | Creepy Old Man | |
| 2019 | Beneath the Leaves | James Whitley | |
| 2021 | Battle In Space: The Armada Attacks | The Sycophant | |
| 2022 | Hocus Pocus 2 | William "Billy" Butcherson | |
| 2023 | Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror | Count Orlok | |
| 2024 | Space Command Redemption | Dor Neven | |
| 2024 | Operation Taco Gary's | Elder | |
| TBA | The Weight of Darkness | John Gatlin | Filming |
| TBA | The Remedy | TBA | Post-production |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1991 | In Living Color | Mime | Episode: "#2.24" |
| 1993 | Tales from the Crypt | Contortionist | Episode: "Food for Thought" |
| 1993 | Silk Stalkings | Artie | Episode: "Love Never Dies" |
| 1994 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Slapstick Actor | Episode: "Indiana Jones and Hollywood Follies" |
| 1996 | Bone Chillers | Mummy | Episode: "Mummy Dearest" |
| 1997 | Unhappily Ever After | Fake Kramer | Episode: "Sternberg" |
| 1997 | The Weird Al Show | Contortionist #2 | 4 episodes |
| 1998 | The Outer Limits | Elder Alien / Alien #1 / Alien / Alien Doctor | 3 episodes |
| 1998 | Kenan & Kel | Head Waiter | Episode: "Attack of the Bug Man" |
| 1999 | G vs E | Herb | Episode: "Evilator" |
| 1999 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Lead Gentleman | Episode: "Hush" |
| 2000 | Party of Five | Minister | Episode: "Blast from the Past" |
| 2000 | The Darkling | Shadow Master | Television film |
| 2001 | Unsolved Mysteries | Gordon Page, Jr. | Episode: "#488" |
| 2002 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Grinder | Episode: "Revenge is Best Served Cold" |
| 2003 | The Guardian | Micah Oakley | Episode: "Believe" |
| 2004 | Rock Me Baby | Auggie the Octopus | Episode: "I Love You, You Don't Love Me" |
| 2004 | Significant Others | Waiter | Episode: "A Date, Fate and Jail Bait" |
| 2005, 2008 | Criminal Minds | Domino Thacker / Beanie | 2 episodes |
| 2007 | The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning | Patron | Television film |
| 2008 | Fear Itself | Grady Edlund | Episode: "Skin & Bones" |
| 2010 | Battle Jitni: The Danger Element | Doctor Elymas | Television film |
| 2010 | Nick Swardson's Pretend Time | Gay Robot | 6 episodes |
| 2012–2013 | The Neighbors | Dominique Wilkins | 6 episodes |
| 2013–2015 | Falling Skies | Cochise | 28 episodes |
| 2013 | Comedy Bang! Bang! | Future Man | Episode: "Gillian Jacobs Wears a Red Dress with Sail Boats" |
| 2013 | Sons of Anarchy | Corrections Officer Crane | Episode: "The Mad King" |
| 2014 | Teen Wolf | William Barrow | Episode: "Galvanize" |
| 2014–2016 | The Strain | The Ancient / The Master | 6 episodes |
| 2015 | Arrow | Jake Simmons / Deathbolt | Episode: "Broken Arrow" |
| 2015 | The Flash | Jake Simmons / Deathbolt | Episode: "Rogue Air" |
| 2015 | Z Nation | Dan Scully | Episode: "Roswell" |
| 2015 | The Ultimate Legacy | Hawthorne | Television film |
| 2017 | Nazareth | President Glade | Television film |
| 2017–2024 | Star Trek: Discovery | Admiral Saru / Saru (mirror) | 58 episodes Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in Streaming Presentation (2019) Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television (2018) |
| 2017–2018 | After Trek | Himself | 3 episodes |
| 2018 | Star Trek: Short Treks | Saru | Episode: "The Brightest Star" |
| 2019–2024 | The Ready Room | Himself | 5 episodes |
| 2019–2024 | What We Do in the Shadows | Baron Afanas | 10 episodes |
| 2019 | Better Things | Himself / Monster | 2 episodes |
| 2019 | I Am | Principal | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2020 | Space Command | Dor Neven | 3 episodes |
| 2020 | DuckTales | Wereduck / Demonic Clown | Voice; Episode: "The Trickening!" |

### Web series

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | Angel of Death | Dr. Rankin | 10 episodes |
| 2010 | Universal Dead | Dr. Vataber | 3 episodes |
| 2011 | Fallout: Nuka Break | Mayor Conners | 3 episodes |
| 2011 | Dragon Age: Redemption | Saarebas | 3 episodes |
| 2011 | The Guild | Gerald | 2 episodes |
| 2012 | League of STEAM | Theodore Marshall | Episode: "Dining with the Devil" |
| 2012–2013 | Research. | Denny | 8 episodes |
| 2013 | The Blockbuster Buster | Himself | Episode: "Rocky and Bullwinkle" |
| 2013, 2018 | Adopted | Lloyd Adams | 4 episodes |
| 2015 | Hell's Kitty | Father Damien | 2 episodes |
| 2015 | Murder? | Narrator / Eric | 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Screen Junkies Movie Fights | Himself | 1 episode |
| 2016 | Han Solo: A Smuggler's Trade – A Star Wars Fan Film | Gyorsho | 1 episode |
| 2017–2018 | Automata | Carl Swangee | Voice; 5 episodes |
| 2021 | Batman: Dying Is Easy | Riddler/Edward Nigma | Fan film |
| 2023 | Star Trek: Very Short Treks | Saru | Voice, 2 episodes |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
| 2007 | Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | Silver Surfer | |
| 2008 | Hellboy: The Science of Evil | Abe Sapien | |

### Music videos

| Year | Title | Artist | Role |
| 1998 | "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" | Marilyn Manson | Townsperson |
| 1999 | "All Star" | Smash Mouth | Pencilhead |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2008 | Scream Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Nominated |
| 2009 | Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Won |
| 2009 | Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | Fangoria Horror Hall of Fame | — | Won |
| 2018 | Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actor on Television | Star Trek: Discovery | Nominated |
| 2019 | Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actor on Television | Star Trek: Discovery | Won |
| 2021 | Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actor on Television | Star Trek: Discovery | Won |