Henry Jones (actor)


Jones in The Lady Says No (1952)

Born: Henry Burk Jones; August 1, 1912; New Jersey, U.S.
Died: May 17, 1999 (aged 86); Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Henry Burk Jones (August 1, 1912 – May 17, 1999) was an American actor of stage, film and television.

{snip}

Career

Early in his career, he performed with the Hedgerow Theatre near Philadelphia. His first Broadway appearance was in Maurice Evans's 1938 Hamlet. During World War II, he served in the army and was cast in Irving Berlin's This is the Army.

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, 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. His last Broadway role was in Advise and Consent in 1960–1961.

Jones appeared in more than 180 films and television shows. His screen credits included The Girl Can't Help It with Jayne Mansfield, 3:10 to Yuma with Van Heflin, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? with Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo with James Stewart, Cash McCall with James Garner, The Bramble Bush with Richard Burton, Rascal with Bill Mumy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Dirty Dingus Magee with Frank Sinatra, Support Your Local Sheriff with James Garner and Walter Brennan, Support Your Local Gunfighter with James Garner, 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin, and Arachnophobia with Jeff Daniels.

{snip}

He played Dr. Smith's cousin in a 1966 episode of Lost in Space, "Curse of Cousin Smith", and with R.J. Hoferkamp in the 1968 made-for-television 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. 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 was a Republican and supported the campaign of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.

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

{snip}