Amadeus

Background:

“My intentions as an actor are always to make whatever I'm doing work. I look for the piece to be good as a whole and then, hopefully, to have something good for myself as an actor. I've always been intent on giving to both the project and myself.” Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey Jones is a Golden Globe Award and SAG Award nominated American character actor who has toiled in film, television and on the stage. The former student of the noted London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art first came to prominence as Emperor Joseph II in Milos Forman’s Academy Award winning Amadeus (1984), which brought the actor his Golden Globe nomination. He became a household name with his hilarious portrayal of foiled principal Ed Rooney, Matthew Broderick's arch rival, in the John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). The light-haired player has since acted in various movies, including The Hanoi Hilton (1987), Valmont (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Stuart Little (1999) and Heartbreakers (2001). He also collaborated with Tim Burton on the movies Beetlejuice (1988), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999) and more recently, Who's Your Caddy (2007). The star of Wes Craven’s soon-canceled CBS sitcom “The People Next Door” (1989) regained his reputation as editor/reporter A.W. Merrick in the HBO acclaimed series “Deadwood” (2004-2006), where he shared a SAG nomination.

In 2002, Jones made headlines when he was arrested by Los Angeles police for hiring a minor to pose for pornography and being in possession of child pornography. He was ordered to seek counseling, released on bail and was registered as a sex offender.

Med Student

Childhood and Family:

Son of an art historian, Jeffrey Duncan Jones was born on September 28, 1946, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Douglas Bennett Jones, died when he was still young, leaving Jeffrey under the care of his mother, Ruth, who encouraged him to try acting. Originally planned on a career in medicine, Jeffrey attended Lawrence University in Wisconsin after graduating from Putney School in Putney, Vermont, and began acting as a pre-Med student. Upon receiving his B.A in 1968, he went on to study acting at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where he was a full-scholarship student.

Jeffrey is the father of actor Julian Coutts (born on October 23, 1971). He is an alumnus of the college fraternity Beta Theta Pi.

Deadwood

Career:

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Jeffrey Jones became interested in theater as a result of his regular childhood visits to the Stratford Theater in Ontario, Canada, but was not bit by the acting bug until he was a pre-med student at Wisconsin's Lawrence University. It was his performance in the school's production of “Hobson's Choice” in 1967 that garnered him attention from Sir Tyrone Guthrie, who invited Jones to join the influential Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He made his professional stage debut later that same year in “The House of Atreus” at the Guthrie Theater. With the help of Guthrie, Jones was able to enroll at London's Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He went on to perform with the Stratford Festival in Ontario, the New York Shakespeare Festival and the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville before relocating to New York City.

Jones made his feature film acting debut when he was 24 in 1970's The Revolutionary, a documentary about campus activism directed by Paul Williams and starring Jennifer Salt and Jon Voight. He did not appear in another movie until the early 1980s, probably due to his hectic theater schedule. He acted with Meryl Streep and John Lithgow in “Trelawney of the Wells” at the Lincoln Center in 1975 and appeared in the Lithgow-directed “Boy Meets Girl,” the following year. During this time period, he also appeared in several TV projects, including the historical miniseries “The Adams Chronicles” (1976) and the thriller film Secret Service (1977), based on a play by William Gillette.

In 1980, Jones debuted on Broadway in “The Elephant Man,” opposite David Bowie. “Cloud Nine,” an original Off-Broadway production helmed by Tommy Tune ensued in 1981. A supporting part in the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle Easy Money, as well as a guest stint in the popular TV series “Remington Steele” (both 1983), led to Jones replacing Ian Richardson in the Milos Forman Oscar winning film version of Amadeus (1984). Portraying Austrian Emperor Joseph II, he was handed a 1985 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

Jones gained further recognition when director-writer John Hughes had him play Principal Edward R. Rooney in the comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), alongside Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck and Mia Sara. The role made Jones a cultural icon. The same year, he also appeared in three CBS miniseries, “If Tomorrow Comes,” “George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation,” and “Fresno,” as well as costarred with Lea Thompson in the box office flop Howard the Duck, where he portrayed the dual roles of grateful research scientist Dr Walter Jenning and the inscrutable Dark Overlord.

Next up for Jones, he gave notables turns as an Army officer whose helicopter was gunned down while on a non-combat mission in The Hanoi Hilton (1987) and as an aged man marrying an innocent young girl (played by Fairuza Balk) in Valmont (1989), a second film with Forman. In between, he began collaborating with Tim Burton in the director's acclaimed comedy Beetlejuice (1988), starring Michael Keaton in the title role. In the movie, which won an Academy Award for Best Makeup, Jones played the father who moved his family into a beautiful New England farmhouse haunted by ghosts Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. The late 1980s also found the actor star as a cartoonist named Walter Kellogg in the short-lived CBS TV series “The People Next Door” (1989), produced by Wes Craven.

Jones went on to make films regularly throughout the 1990s. He opened the decade by playing technical consultant Skip Tyler in John McTiernan's blockbuster hit The Hunt for Red October (1990), adapted from Tom Clancy's novel. He reunited with Broderick for the unsuccessful comedy Out on a Limb (1992), where he portrayed mad twins Matt Skearns and Peter Van Der Haven, and worked with Burton in Ed Wood (1994), as the astonishing Criswell. He then supported Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder in Nicholas Hytner's big screen version of The Crucible (1996), played Eddie Barzoon in Taylor Hackford's The Devil's Advocate (1997), appeared as an amiable commanding officer in the comic thriller Ravenous (1999) and had a bit part as Uncle Crenshaw in the hit Stuart Little (1999). Jones also found himself being cast by Burton in the small role of Reverend Steenwyck in 1999's Sleepy Hollow. He revisited the stage that same year with a role in a revival of Tennessee Williams' “Camino Real” at the Williamstown Theater Festival.

A costarring role opposite Paul Guilfoyle in the European comedy Company Man became Jones' opening act in the new millennium before he joined the cast of Heartbreakers (2001), the story of mother-daughter con artists, and costarred with Eddie Murphy in Doctor Dolittle 2 (2001). He also appeared in How High (2001), played the supporting role of Lloyd Bator Jenkins in Par 6 (2002) and had guest roles in two episodes of the animated TV series “Justice League” (2002). However, Jones' career suffered a setback following his 2002 arrest in the Los Angeles area for possessing child pornography. He rebounded two years later with his supporting regular role as AW Merrick, a newspaper editor for The Pioneer, on HBO's show “Deadwood” (2004-2006). With the rest of the cast members, including Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane and Molly Parker, he nabbed a 2007 SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

More recently, Jones made his big screen comeback with Who's Your Caddy, which debuted at the Urbanworld Film Festival on June 23, 2007. In the comedy-sport film, he was teamed up with Susan Ward as husband and wife.

Awards:
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