Dean Jones (actor)

Dean Carroll Jones (January 25, 1931 – September 1, 2015) was an American actor best known for his roles as Agent Zeke Kelso in That Darn Cat! (1965), Jim Douglas in The Love Bug (1968), Albert Dooley in The Million Dollar Duck (1971; for which he received a Golden Globe nomination) and Dr. Herman Varnick in Beethoven (1992).
== Early life ==
Jones was born in Decatur, Alabama, to Andrew Guy Jones (1901-1979), a traveling construction worker, and the former Nolia Elizabeth Wilhite (1902-1977).[1][2]
As a student at Riverside High School in Decatur, Jones had his own local radio show, Dean Jones Sings.[3] Jones served in the United States Navy during the Korean War, and after his discharge worked at the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.
Jones attended Asbury University in Wilmore near Lexington, Kentucky. A member of its Class of 1953, he did not graduate, but the university in 2002 awarded him an honorary degree. On March 4, 2011, he later addressed the ceremony for the dedication of Asbury's Andrew S. Miller Center for Communications Arts.[4]
== Stage ==
After appearing in minor film and television roles, Jones made his Broadwaydebut (along with Jane Fonda) in the 1960 play There Was a Little Girl. He stepped into the role in Boston, Massachusetts, at only one day's notice.[5] In 1960 he also played Dave Manning in the Broadway comedy Under the Yum-Yum Tree, a role which he repeated in the 1963 movie version starring Jack Lemmon.
After achieving success in film and television, Jones was set to return to Broadway as the star of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company in 1970. Shortly after opening night, Jones withdrew from the show, due to stress that he was undergoing from ongoing divorce proceedings. 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 Kert who received the Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical).
In 1986, Jones, by then having become a Christian, starred in Into the Light, a musical about scientists and the Shroud of Turin, which closed four days after it opened. He had far more success touring in the one-man show St. John in Exileas the last surviving Apostle of Jesus Christ, reminiscing about his life while imprisoned on the Greek island of Patmos. A performance was filmed in 1986. 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.
== Television and film. ==
Jones started his film career by signing a contract at MGM, beginning with a small role as a soldier in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and he later played disc jockey Teddy Talbot in the Elvis Presley film Jailhouse Rock (1957). He portrayed a soldier in both Imitation General (also 1957) with Glenn Ford and Never So Few (1959) with Frank Sinatra.
Jones had a major role in an episode of ABC's Stagecoach West ("Red Sand", 1960). He portrayed Joe Brady, one of two outlaws, with Harold J. Stone as Tanner. They are trapped during a sandstorm in a frontier house with series stars Robert Bray and Richard Eyer as Simon and Davey Kane, respectively. The outlaws are sought by the United States Army for armed robbery and the death of two guards. The young woman of the house, Martha Whitlock, played by Diana Millay, was recently deserted by her husband. She becomes attracted to Jones' character, who considers himself a failure since he had been orphaned at an early age. In the story line, it is determined that Brady is not guilty of the robbery and shooting of the guards, but is culpable as an accessory after the fact.[6]
Jones subsequently starred in the NBC television sitcom Ensign O'Toole (1962–63), produced by Four Star Television, portraying an easy-going and inexperienced officer on a U.S. Navy destroyer. His co-stars included Jack Mullaney, Jack Albertson, Jay C. Flippen, Harvey Lembeck, and Beau Bridges. Jones also recorded a singing album, Introducing Dean Jones, for Valiant Records.[citation needed]
As Ensign O'Toole was the lead-in show on NBC to Walt Disney's The Wonderful World of Color, Disney ordered a print of Jones' latest film Under the Yum Yum Tree to study.[7] Disney signed Jones on for a string of Disney films in the 1960s and 1970s, beginning with That Darn Cat!. His performance was so well-received that Disney used him for future movies including The Ugly Dachshund (1966), Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) and Snowball Express (1972).
Jones' signature Disney role would be as race car driver Jim Douglas in the highly successful The Love Bug series. He appeared in two feature films, The Love Bug (1968) and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), as well as the short-lived Herbie, the Love Bug (1982) television series and the made-for-TV movie The Love Bug (1997). In 1969, Jones also was the host of a short-lived sketch-comedy hour on ABC-TV titled What's It All About, World? that became a variety show midway into its run, when the title was changed to The Dean Jones Variety Hour.[citation needed]
Away from Disney, Jones co-starred with Broadway-era co-star Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy, Any Wednesday (1966) and, in a dramatic turn, portrayed Ed Cooper in the NBC television movie When Every Day Was the Fourth of July(1978). In the later film, Jones played an attorney in the 1930s who agrees to defend a man who has been accused of murder; accepting the case only after urging from his daughter. Jones reprised the role of Ed Cooper in the ABCtelevision sequel The Long Days of Summer (1980). He appeared with Gregory Peck and Danny DeVito as Bill Coles, the president of Peck's company, which was fighting a hostile takeover by DeVito, in Other People's Money (1991).
Jones, who was always famous for playing nice characters, took on the role as Dr. Herman Varnick, the evil veterinarian, in the family film Beethoven (1992). Jones employed method acting for the first time in his prolific career and didn't break character off set throughout the film's shooting period much to the surprise of cast members as well as family and friends whom had never seen him so immersed in a role. He maintained his relationship to the Beethoven franchise by providing the voice of George Newton in the television version of Beethoven. He also appeared in a small role as Director of Central Intelligence Judge Arthur Moore in the film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger (1994), which stars Harrison Ford.
Jones also appeared in at least two episodes of Murder, She Wrote, which starred Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher - a crime writer who also solves murders. On July 25, 1994, Jones was a guest on 100 Huntley Street.
== Personal life ==
Jones' first marriage to Mae Inez Entwisle ended in divorce in 1970. They had two daughters. He was married to actress Lory Patrick from 1973 until his death in 2015. Lory had a son, Michael Patrick, who was Jones' stepson.[citation needed]
Jones became a devout born-again Christian in 1973 or 1974. His book Under Running Laughter (1982) recounts his experience of Christianity. He had previously suffered from bouts of depression. His wife, Lory, said, "One night he got down on his knees and prayed that God would free him from the miserable moods that he had always suffered. He told me that in an instant it was gone and he felt peace and joy flood into his heart."[3]
Jones appeared in several Christian films. He also voiced the narrator in Birdwing Records' 1979 studio album, Nathaniel the Grublet, as well as voicing the standard English narration for the 80 minute Bible overview, God's Story: From Creation to Eternity. In 1998, Jones founded the Christian Rescue Committee (CRC), an organization that helps provide a "way of escape to Jews, Christians, and others persecuted for their faith."[8]
=== Death ===
Jones died from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles, California on September 1, 2015, aged 84. He was cremated.[1]
== Filmography ==
Film 	Film 	Film 	Film
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1956 	Somebody Up There Likes Me 	Private in Rocky's Tent 	Uncredited
1956 	These Wilder Years 	Hardware Clerk 	
1956 	Tea and Sympathy 	Ollie 	
1956 	The Opposite Sex 	Assistant Stage Manager 	Uncredited
1956 	The Rack 	Lieutenant 	Uncredited
1956 	The Great American Pastime 	Buck Rivers 	
1957 	Slander 	Newscaster 	Uncredited
1957 	Ten Thousand Bedrooms 	Dan 	
1957 	Designing Woman 	Assistant Stage Manager (Boston)	Uncredited
1957 	Until They Sail 	US Marine Lt. 	Uncredited
1957 	Jailhouse Rock 	Teddy Talbot 	
1958 	Handle with Care 	Zachary Davis 	
1958 	Imitation General 	Cpl. Terry Sellers 	
1958 	Torpedo Run 	Lt. Jake "Fuzz" Foley 	
1959 	Night of the Quarter Moon 	Lexington Nelson 	
1959 	Never So Few 	Sgt. Jim Norby 	
1963 	Under the Yum Yum Tree 	David Manning 	
1964 	The New Interns 	Dr. Lew Worship 	
1965 	Two on a Guillotine 	Val Henderson 	
1965 	That Darn Cat! 	FBI Agent Zeke Kelso 	
1966 	The Ugly Dachshund 	Mark Garrison 	
1966 	Any Wednesday 	Cass Henderson 	Alternate title: Bachelor Girl Apartment
1967 	Monkeys, Go Home! 	Hank Dussard 	
1968 	Blackbeard's Ghost 	Steve Walker 	
1968 	The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit 	Fred Bolton 	
1968 	The Love Bug 	Jim Douglas 	
1970 	Mr. Superinvisible 	Peter Denwell 	Alternate title: The Unseizable Invincible Mr. Invisible
1971 	The Million Dollar Duck 	Professor Albert Dooley 	
1972 	Snowball Express 	Johnny Baxter 	
1974 	The Sugarland Express 	Policeman at Football Game 	Uncredited
1976 	The Shaggy D.A. 	Wilby Daniels 	
1977 	Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo 	Jim Douglas 	
1978 	Born Again 	Charles W. Colson 	
1986 	St. John in Exile 	St. John 	
1991 	Other People's Money 	Bill Coles 	
1992 	The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible 	King Ahasuerus(voice) 	Direct-to-video ("Queen Esther" episode)
1992 	Beethoven 	Dr. Herman Varnick 	
1994 	Clear and Present Danger 	Judge Moore 	
1994 	The Visual Bible: Acts 	Luke the Evangelist 	
1996 	God's Story: From Creation to Eternity 	The Storyteller (voice) 	Direct-to-video, documentary
1996 	A spasso nel tempo 	Professor Mortimer / Joe 	English title: Getting Around in Time
1997 	That Darn Cat 	Mr. Flint 	
1998 	Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero 	Dean Arbagast (voice) 	Direct-to-video
2007 	Lavinia's Heist 	Tony Cavaletti 	Short film
2009 	Mandie and the Secret Tunnel 	Jason Bond 	
2009 	God Provides 	Abraham 	Direct-to-video (final film role)
Television	Television 	Television 	Television
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1960 	Zane Grey Theatre 	Deputy Bill Devlin 	Episode: "The Sunday Man"
1960 	The Aquanauts 	John Anderson 	Episode: "The Stowaway"
1960 	Outlaws 	Danny Cannon 	Episode: "Beat the Drum Slowly"
1960 	Stagecoach West 	Joe Brady 	Episode: "Red Sand"
1961 	The Dick Powell Show 	Detective Phil Winslow 	Episode: "Who Killed Julie Greer?"
1961 	Bonanza 	Danny Kidd 	Episode: "The Friendship"
1961 	Tales of Wells Fargo 	Jamie Coburn 	Episode: "A Killing in Calico"
1962 	Target: The Corruptors! 	Barry Steele 	Episode: "Play It Blue"
1962 	Wagon Train 	Lt. Burton 	Episode: "The Lieutenant Burton Story"
1962–63 	Ensign O'Toole 	Ensign O'Toole 	32 episodes
1963 	Ben Casey 	Dr. Richard Connell 	Episode: "Fire in a Sacred Fruit Tree"
1963 	Burke's Law 	Rudy Davis 	Episode: "Who Killed Eleanora Davis?"
1965 	Kraft Suspense Theatre 	Eddie Carew 	Episode: "The Rise and Fall of Eddie Carew"
1965 	Vacation Playhouse 	Alec Tate 	Episode: "Alec Tate"
1968 	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color 	Narrator (voice) 	Episode: "The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show"
1971 	The Chicago Teddy Bears 	Linc McCray 	13 episodes
1972 	The Great Man's Whiskers 	James E. Cooper 	TV movie
1973 	Walt Disney: A Golden Anniversary Salute 	Himself (Host) 	TV special
1973 	Guess Who's Sleeping in My Bed? 	George Gregory 	TV movie
1974 	Medical Center 	Dr. Ronston 	Episode: "Spectre"
1976 	Good Heavens 	Brad 	Episode: "Coffee, Tea, or Gloria"
1977 	Once Upon a Brothers Grimm 	Jacob Grimm, Grandmother 	TV movie
1978 	When Every Day Was the Fourth of July 	Ed Cooper 	TV movie
1978 	The Wonderful World of Disney 	Himself 	Episode: "Mickey's 50"
1980 	The Long Days of Summer 	Ed Cooper 	TV movie
1981 	Aloha Paradise 	Alex 	Episode: "Alex and Annie"
1982 	Kraft Salutes Walt Disney World's 10th Anniversary	Mr. Lane 	TV special
1982 	Herbie, the Love Bug 	Jim Douglas 	5 episodes
1983 	The Gospel According to Scrooge 	Narrator (voice) 	TV movie
1984 	Don't Ask Me, Ask God 	Future Father 	TV special
1984 	The Love Boat 	Marty Chenault 	Episode: "Julie and the Producer" (Parts 1 & 2)
1984 	Finder of Lost Loves 	Steve Marsh 	Episode: "Yesterday's Child"
1984 	Murder, She Wrote 	Marcus Boswell 	Episode: "It's a Dog's Life"
1988 	Murder, She Wrote 	Leonard Palmer 	Episode: "Harbinger of Death"
1989 	Fire and Rain 	Jack Ayers 	TV movie
1992 	Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style 	Harry Bannister 	TV movie
1994 	Beethoven 	George Newton (voice) 	26 episodes
1995 	The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 	Dean Webster Carlson 	TV movie
1995 	Nowhere Man 	Jonathan Crane 	Episode: "Father"
1996 	Special Report: Journey to Mars 	Dr. Scott Berlin 	TV movie
1996 	The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest 	Dr. Karel (voice) 	Episode: "DNA Doomsday"
1997 	Superman: The Animated Series 	Col. Sam Lane (voice) 	Episode: "Monkey Fun"
1997 	The Love Bug 	Jim Douglas 	TV movie
1998 	Adventures from the Book of Virtues 	Chauncey (voice) 	Episode: "Trustworthiness"
2001 	Scrooge & Marley 	Ebenezer Scrooge 	TV movie (final TV role)
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:Julia and the Famous Stars
Category:1931 births
Category:2015 deaths
Category:Deceased Voice Cast Members
Category:Deceased characters
Category:Deceased people
Category:Former Disney people
Category:Disney people