Boyish-looking, squeaky-clean leading man of the 1960s and 70s who began his career as a blues singer before making his film debut in 1956. Jones gained prominence for his starring roles in a succession of Disney family comedies in the 1960s, most notably "That Darn Cat!" (1965), "The Love Bug" (1968), "Million Dollar Duck" (1971), "The Shaggy D.A." (1976) and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo" (1977).
Jones also starred briefly on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's sophisticated dissection of modern marriage, "Company" (1970) and received praise for the innocent, dopey quality he brought to the role of the bachelor Bobby. After a hiatus from major roles in the 1980s, Jones was featured as a pragmatic business manager whose company is about to be taken over by a liquidator in "Other People's Money" (1991). Jones married second wife, actress-turned-screenwriter, Lory Basham in 1973.
- Also Credited As:
Dean C. Jones, Dean Carroll Jones
- Born:
January 25, 1931 in Decatur, Alabama, USA
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Job Titles:
Actor, Singer, Coal loader, Cotton picker, Dishwasher, Timber cutter
Family
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Daughter: Carol Elizabeth Jones. born c. 1955; mother, Mae Entwisle
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Daughter: Deanna Jones. born c. 1957; mother, Mae Entwisle
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Father: Andrew Guy Jones.
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Mother: Nolia Elizabeth Jones.
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Son: Michael Jones. mother Lory Basham
Education
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Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky
Milestones
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1953 Served in US Navy Air Corps, operating radio-controlled aircraft for fleet gunner practice; produced entertainment programs on the base and sang on the local San Diego TV program, Liberty Call
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1956 Film debut in Gaby (uncredited), Ten Thousand Bedrooms , These Wilder Years and Tea and Sympathy
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1960 Appeared on Broadway in Under the Yum Yum Tree
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1960 Broadway debut opposite Jane Fonda in the short-lived (ran three-weeks) play, There Was a Little Girl
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1962 Played title role in TV series Ensign O Toole
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1967 Suffered a near-fatal motorcycle accident in Baja CA
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1969 Hosted TV series, What s It All About, World
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1970 Starred on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim s Company ; left after a few weeks into run (official reason was hepatitis but real reason was that he was in the midst of a divorce); replaced by standby Larry Kert
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1971 Starred on TV series, The Chicago Teddy Bears
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1978 Became a born-again Christian
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1978 Portrayed Charles Colson in film, Born Again
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1982 Played Jim Douglas on short-lived TV series, Herbie, the Love Bug
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1986 Starred in a short-lived (ran five performances) Broadway musical, Into the Light about the Shroud of Turin
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1991 Made feature film comeback in Other People s Money
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Hired to sing in a melodrama produced at Knott s Berry Farm amusement park, Los Angeles where composer Vernon Duke heard him and introduced him to composer Frank Loesser who brought Jones to MGM where he was signed as a singer
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Landed his own local radio show Dean Jones Sings while still a student of Riverside High School in Decatur AL
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Left home at fifteen to become a singer; worked as a coal loader, timber cutter, cotton picker and dishwasher before making professional debut as a blues singer in a New Orleans nightclub (earning $3 an hour and all he could eat until the club folded)
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Returned to Decatur to finish high school
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Toured in one-man show, St John in Exile and made documentaries for Compassion International, a child-care organization