Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones

born on 15/9/1946 in San Saba, TX, United States

Tommy Lee Jones

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones, August 2006
Born September 15 1946 [1]
San Saba, Texas, U.S.
Occupation Actor, director
Years active 1969present
Spouse(s) Katherine "Kate" Lardner (197178)
Kimberlea Cloughley (198196)
Dawn Laurel (2001present)

Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive.

His notable film roles include federal marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive and its sequel U.S. Marshals, the villain "Two-Face" in Batman Forever, terrorist William Strannix in Under Siege, Agent K in the Men in Black films, former Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call in Lonesome Dove, Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men, a Texas Ranger in Man of the House and rancher Pete Perkins in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Jones has also portrayed real-life figures such as businessman Howard Hughes, executed murderer Gary Gilmore, Oliver Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter and baseball great Ty Cobb.

Early life

Jones was born in San Saba, Texas,[2] the son of Lucille Marie (née Scott), a police officer, school teacher, and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, an oil field worker;[1] the two were married and divorced twice. Jones has Cherokee ancestry from his grandmother.[3] He was a resident of Midland, Texas, and attended Robert E. Lee High School.

Jones graduated from the St. Mark's School of Texas, where he attended on scholarship and is now on the board of directors, and attended Harvard College on a need-based scholarship. He stayed in Mower B-12 as a freshman, across the hall from future Vice President Al Gore, the son of Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee. As an upperclassman, he was roommates in Dunster House with Gore and Bob Somerby, who later became editor of the media criticism site the Daily Howler. Jones played offensive tackle[4] on Harvard's undefeated 1968 varsity football team, was nominated as a first-team All-Ivy League selection, and played in the memorable and literally last-minute Harvard 16-point comeback to tie Yale in the 1968 Game. He recounts his memory of "the most famous football game in Ivy League history" in the documentary Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. Jones graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1969, and his senior thesis was on "the mechanics of Catholicism" in Flannery O'Connor.[5][6]

Career

Jones moved to New York to become an actor, making his Broadway debut in 1969's A Patriot for Me in a number of supporting roles. In 1970, he landed his first film role, appropriately playing a Harvard student in Love Story (Erich Segal, the author of "Love Story," said that he based the lead character of Oliver on the two undergrad roommates he knew while attending Harvard, Jones and Gore).[7]

In early 1971, he returned to Broadway in Abe Burrows' Four on a Garden where he shared the stage with Carol Channing and Sid Caesar. Between 1971 and 1975, he portrayed Dr. Mark Toland on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. He returned to the stage for a 1974 production of Ulysses in Nighttown with Zero Mostel. In films, he played an escaped convict hunted in Jackson County Jail (1976), a Vietnam veteran in Rolling Thunder (1977) and an automobile mogul, co-starring with Sir Laurence Olivier, in the Harold Robbins drama The Betsy.

In 1980, Jones earned his first Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn's husband, Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn, in the popular Coal Miner's Daughter. In 1981, he played a drifter opposite Sally Field in Back Roads, a comedy that received middling reviews.[8]

In 1983, he received an Emmy for Best Actor for his performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in a TV adaptation of Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. That same year he starred in a pirate adventure, Nate and Hayes, playing the heavily bearded Captain Bully Hayes.

In 1989, he earned another Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Texas Ranger lawman Woodrow F. Call in the acclaimed television mini-series Lonesome Dove, based on the best-seller by Larry McMurtry.

In the 1990s, blockbuster hits such as The Fugitive co-starring Harrison Ford, Batman Forever co-starring Val Kilmer, and Men in Black with Will Smith made Jones one of the best-paid and most in-demand actors in Hollywood. His role in The Fugitive won wide acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a sequel. When he accepted his Oscar, his head was shaved for his role in the film Cobb, a situation he made light of in his speech with: "All a man can say at a time like this is 'I am not really bald.'"

Among his other well-known performances during the 1990s were those of the accused conspirator Clay Shaw/Clay Bertrand in the 1991 film JFK (earning him another Oscar nomination), as a terrorist who hijacks a U.S. Navy battleship in 1992's Under Siege and as a maximum-security prison warden in way over his head in 1994's Natural Born Killers.

Jones co-starred with director Clint Eastwood as astronauts in the 2000 film Space Cowboys, leading a space rescue mission.

In 2005, the first theatrical feature film Jones directed, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, was presented at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. In it, Jones speaks both English and Spanish. It won him the Best Actor Award. His first film as a director had been in The Good Old Boys in 1995, a made-for-television movie.

Two strong performances in 2007 marked a resurgence in Jones' career, one as a beleaguered father investigating the disappearance of his soldier son in In the Valley of Elah, the other as a Texas sheriff hunting an assassin in the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men. For the former, he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Jones has been a spokesperson for Japanese brewing company Suntory since 2006. He can be seen in various Japanese TV commercials of Suntory's Coffee brand Boss as a character called "Alien Jones," an extraterrestrial who takes the form of a human being to check on the world of humans. There are 23 such commercials that can be seen on YouTube.

In 2010, Jones appeared alongside Ben Affleck in the recession drama, The Company Men. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where early reviews praised Jones' performance as "pitch-perfect".[9] On May 26, 2010, LeicesterSquareTV reported that, after weeks of speculation, Hayley Atwell confirmed that Jones has signed on for a role in the upcoming Marvel Studios' film, Captain America: The First Avenger.[10] He also directed, produced, and co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson in an adaptation of The Sunset Limited.

Personal life

At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, he presented the nominating speech for his college roommate, Al Gore, as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States.

Jones was married to Kate Lardner, the daughter of Ring Lardner Jr. from 1971 to 1978. Jones has two children from his second marriage to Kimberlea Cloughley, the daughter of Phil Hardberger, former mayor of San Antonio: Austin Leonard (born 1982) and Victoria Kafka (born 1991). On March 19, 2001, he married his third wife, Dawn Laurel.

Jones resides in Terrell Hills, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio. Jones speaks fluent Spanish.[11] He reportedly owns a large ranch in San Saba County, Texas. He also owns another ranch near Van Horn, Texas, which served as the set for Jones' film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Additionally, he owns a home and farm in polo mecca Wellington, Florida. He is a serious polo player, having kept polo ponies for decades, and is also an avid San Antonio Spurs fan, often seen courtside at Spurs games.

In 2008, Jones signed on with Chesapeake Energy to be a spokesperson for a public relations campaign to promote shale gas (natural gas derived from shale rock through fracturing or "fracking") in Texas. The New York Times later characterized the campaign as misleading.[12]

Film and television credits

Film and television credits
Year Title Role Notes
1970 Love Story Hank Simpson
1971 One Life to Live Dr. Mark Toland TV soap opera
1973 Life Study Gus
1975 Eliza's Horoscope Tommy Lee
1976 Charlie's Angels Aram Kolegian TV, 1 episode
1976 Smash-Up on Interstate 5 Officer Hutton TV
1976 Jackson County Jail Coley Blake
1976 Family David Needham TV, 1 episode
1977 The Amazing Howard Hughes Howard Hughes
1977 Rolling Thunder Corporal Johnny Vohden
1978 The Betsy Angelo Perino
1978 Eyes of Laura Mars John Neville
1980 Coal Miner's Daughter Doolittle 'Mooney' Lynn aka 'Doo' Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1980 Barn Burning Ab Snopes TV
1981 Back Roads Elmore Pratt
1982 The Executioner's Song Gary Mark Gilmore Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
1982 The Rainmaker Starbuck TV
1983 Nate and Hayes Captain Bully Hayes
1984 The River Rat Billy
1985 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Brick Pollitt TV
1986 The Park is Mine Mitch TV
1986 Black Moon Rising Quint
1986 Yuri Nosenko: Double Agent Steve Daley TV
1987 Broken Vows Pater Joseph McMahon TV
1987 The Big Town George Cole
1988 Stranger on My Land Bud Whitman TV
1988 April Morning Moses Cooper TV
1988 Stormy Monday Cosmo
1988 Gotham Eddie Mallard TV
1989 Lonesome Dove Woodrow F. Call
  • Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
  • Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
1989 The Package Thomas Boyette
1990 Fire Birds Brad Little
1991 JFK Clay Shaw/Clay Bertrand
  • Nominated Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
  • Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1992 Under Siege William Strannix
1993 House of Cards Jake Beerlander
1993 The Fugitive Marshal Samuel Gerard
  • Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture
  • Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
  • Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
  • Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
  • MTV Movie Awards Best On-Screen Duo
  • Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1993 Heaven & Earth Steve Butler
1994 Blown Away Ryan Gaerity Nominated MTV Movie Awards Best Villain
1994 The Client 'Reverend' Roy Foltrigg
1994 Natural Born Killers Warden Dwight McClusky
1994 Blue Sky Maj. Henry 'Hank' Marshall
1994 Cobb Ty Cobb
1995 The Good Old Boys Hewey Calloway
  • also Director
  • Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
1995 Batman Forever Harvey Dent/Two-Face Nominated MTV Movie Awards Best Villain
1997 Volcano Mike Roark
1997 Men in Black Kevin Brown/Agent K
  • Nominated Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
  • Nominated MTV Movie AwardsBest On-Screen Duo
1998 U.S. Marshals Chief Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard
1998 Small Soldiers Chip Hazard Voice
1999 Double Jeopardy Travis Lehman
2000 Rules of Engagement Col. Hayes 'Hodge' Hodges
2000 Space Cowboys William "Hawk" Hawkins
2002 Men in Black II Kevin Brown/Agent K
2003 The Hunted L.T. Bonham
2003 The Missing Samuel Jones/Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan
2005 Man of the House Roland Sharp
2005 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Pete Perkins
  • also Director
  • Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival)
  • Flanders International Film Festival Grand Prix
  • Nominated Palme d'Or
  • Nominated Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature (shared with Michael Fitzgerald, Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam)
  • Nominated Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
2006 A Prairie Home Companion Axeman Gotham Awards Best Ensemble Cast
2007 No Country for Old Men Ed Tom Bell
  • San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
  • Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
  • Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
  • Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
2007 In the Valley of Elah Hank Deerfield
  • Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
  • Nominated London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
  • Nominated Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
2008 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 Himself Interviewed for this documentary, by director Kevin Rafferty, concerning the 1968 Harvard-Yale football game. Jones was an offensive guard.
2009 In the Electric Mist Dave Robicheaux
2010 The Company Men Gene McClary Nominated Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture
2011 The Sunset Limited White Man Also director and executive producer
2011 Captain America: The First Avenger Colonel Chester Phillips[13] post-production
2012 Men in Black III[14] Kevin Brown/Agent K post-production
2012 Lincoln Thaddeus Stevens filming

Further reading

  • Grunert, Andrea, "Les bons et les méchants selon Tommy Lee Jones", in: Francis Bordat et Serge Chauvin (eds.) Les bons et les méchants Université Paris X, 2005, p. 339352, ISBN 2-907335-30-8

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Tommy Lee Jones Biography (1946)
  2. Weinraub, Bernard, FILM; Tommy Lee Jones Snarls His Way to the Pinnacle, The New York Times, August 1, 1993. URL accessed on March 28, 2010.
  3. Eric O'Keefe :: WD Ranch
  4. Yale Alumni Magazine
  5. Scott, A. O., Big Questions, Smart Women, Manns Movies, The New York Times. URL accessed on May 25, 2010.
  6. Newsweek.com
  7. Fox, Margalit, Erich Segal, Love Story' Author, Dies at 72, The New York Times, January 20, 2010. URL accessed on March 28, 2010.
  8. Back Roads. Business Date for Back Roads. imdb.com/. Retrieved on March 12, 2006.
  9. Review: The Company Men Sundance Film Festival Film.com
  10. Tommy Lee Jones Officially Comes Aboard Captain America: The First Avenger. MovieWeb.com.
  11. BBC Movies interview Tommy Lee Jones
  12. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26gas.html
  13. Marvel confirms Tommy Lee Jones will play Colonel Phillips in 'Captain America' | Inside Movies | EW.com
  14. Brendon Connelly (April 21, 2010). Barry Sonnenfeld Confirms Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones For Men in Black 3D. /Film. Retrieved on April 20, 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tommy Lee Jones

  • Tommy Lee Jones at the Internet Movie Database
  • Tommy Lee Jones at the TCM Movie Database
  • Tommy Lee Jones at the Internet Broadway Database
  • Tommy Lee Jones at the Internet off-Broadway Database
This page was last modified 14.07.2011 20:17:12

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