Henry Jones (actor)

Life and career

Jones was born in New Jersey, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Helen (née Burk) and John Francis Xavier Jones. He was the grandson of Pennsylvania Representative Henry Burk, a German immigrant. Jones attended the Jesuit Saint Joseph's Preparatory School.

Jones is remembered for his role as handyman Leroy Jessup in the movie The Bad Seed (1956), a role he originated on Broadway. Other theater credits included My Sister Eileen, Hamlet, The Time of Your Life, They Knew What They Wanted, The Solid Gold Cadillac, and Sunrise at Campobello, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Performance in a Drama.

Jones appeared in more than 180 films and television shows. His screen credits included The Girl Can't Help It, 3:10 to Yuma, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Vertigo, Cash McCall, The Bramble Bush, Rascal, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Dirty Dingus Magee, Support Your Local Gunfighter, 9 to 5 and Arachnophobia.

On television, Jones' best remembered role was as the title character's father-in-law in the 1970s CBS sitcom Phyllis.

Jones portrayed Jed McCoy on a 1961 episode of the ABC sitcom, The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan, with fellow guest stars Pat Buttram and Jane Darwell as Cousin Carl and "Grandma McCoy", respectively. In the story line, the California McCoys return to West Virginia for Grandmother McCoy's 100th birthday.

He had a regular role on the ABC drama Channing, with Jason Evers.

Jones also appeared on Appointment with Adventure, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Eleventh Hour, Bewitched, Night Gallery, Emergency!, The Mod Squad, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Adam-12, The Doris Day Show, Father Knows Best, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Untouchables, MacGyver, Mr. Belvedere and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

He played Dr. Smith's cousin in a 1966 episode of CBS's Lost In Space, "Curse Of Cousin Smith", and alongside R.J. Hoferkamp in the 1968 made-for-television western movie Something for a Lonely Man. In 1967 he guest starred in the episode "A Time to Die" of the Sci-Fi TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's 4th season. Starting in 1974, he guest starred three times on The Six Million Dollar Man as Dr. Jeffrey/Chester Dolenz. This character was a brilliant scientist who built lifelike robots, but although every plot was foiled he still managed to escape to fight another day.

In 1978, he appeared in the Barney Miller episode: "The Prisoner".

In the mid 1980s, Jones appeared at local dining theatre productions including Winnipeg's 'Stage West'.

Personal life and death

Jones died in Los Angeles, California, at age 86, from complications from injuries suffered in a fall at his home in Santa Monica.

His daughter is actress Jocelyn Jones.