Full Name Duane L. Jones Name Duane Jones Nationality American Role Actor | Other names Duane L. Jones Siblings Marva Jones Brooks Years active 1968–1988 | |
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Occupation Actor, director, teacher Movies Night of the Living Dead, Ganja & Hess, Beat Street, To Die For, Losing Ground Similar People Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, George A Romero, Bill Gunn, Deran Sarafian | ||
The Walking Dead - What Happened to Duane
Duane L. Jones (February 2, 1937 – July 22, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his leading role as Ben in the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead. He was director of the Maguire Theater at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, and the artistic director of the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art in Manhattan.
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Biography
Jones was born on February 2, 1937. His mother was Mildred Gordon Jones and he had a sister, Marva (later Marva Brooks) and a brother, Henry. A graduate of the Sorbonne, he studied acting in New York City.
His role in 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead marked the first time an African-American actor was cast as the star of a horror film and one of the first times in American cinema where a person of color was given an important role when the script did not explicitly call for one. At the time, casting a black man as the hero of a film where all the other characters were white was potentially controversial. While some saw the casting as significant, the director of the film states "Jones simply gave the best audition."
Jones was executive director of the Black Theater Alliance, a federation of theater companies, from 1976 through 81. He also taught acting styles at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. As executive director of the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art (RACCA), he promoted African-American theater. After leaving the American Academy of Dramatic Arts he taught a select group of students privately in Manhattan, by invitation only. His hand-selected students were of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
He was in a few other films after Night of the Living Dead. He continued as a theater actor and director until his death in 1988. Despite his other film roles, Jones worried that people only recognized him as Ben.
Death
Jones died of cardiopulmonary arrest at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, Long Island, New York on July 22, 1988, aged 51.