Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (3)

Trade Mark (5)

Deadpan delivery



Known both on-screen and off-screen for his crusty, cranky persona



Often plays hard-edged but sarcastic law enforcement and military officers



Often plays real-life historical figures (Thaddeus Stevens, Howard Hughes, Gary Gilmore, Ty Cobb, Oliver Lynn, Clay Shaw)



Deep gravelly voice with thick Texas accent



Trivia (42)

Never took an acting class.





He and Al Gore were roommates while the two were students at Harvard University. The two remain close friends.

Part time cattle rancher, owns 3,000-acre ranch near San Antonio, Texas.



Plays polo and raises polo ponies. His team won the U.S. Polo Association's Western Challenge Cup in 1993. Invites Harvard University's best polo players to his ranch to practice each fall.



Father's name was Clyde C. Jones -- he did not have a middle name, just an initial.





According to author Erich Segal , Jones and his then Harvard roommate Al Gore , were the models for the character Oliver Barrett IV in Love Story (1970).

Injured after falling from horse during polo match. [October 1998]





Ten days after graduating from Harvard, he landed his first role in the Broadway production of "A Patriot for Me" (with Maximilian Schell ), which closed after 49 performances. He got his agent after giving a letter of introduction to actress Jane Alexander . His story of how he found an agent and a Broadway job so quickly was written about in an issue of "Ripley's Believe It or Not".

Speaks Spanish fluently.





He is a first cousin of Boxcar Willie , a famous country singer.



Owns the movie rights to Cormac McCarthy 's controversial novel "Blood Meridian", which many consider unfilmable.



Born on the exact same date as filmmaker and good friend Oliver Stone

Is an avid fan of the San Antonio Spurs.





Jones was also a resident of Midland, Texas, and attended the same high school as the former First Lady Laura Bush

An eighth-generation Texan, he has English, as well as some Scots-Irish/Northern Irish and Scottish, ancestry. He has also stated that he has Cherokee Native American roots, but it is not clear if this ancestry has been documented (all of his grandparents and great-grandparents were listed as "White" on United States Censuses).





An animated caricature of him appeared in season two, episode 12, "The Star System Syndrome", of the animated series adaptation of Men in Black (1997) alongside an animated caricature of his MIB co-star Will Smith , set against a scene parodying another hit film starring Smith, Independence Day (1996).

Is an avid polo player. He even bought a house in a polo country club in Buenos Aires, Argentina.





In Batman Forever (1995), his character Harvey Two-Face flips a coin to see if his victims should live or die. Twelve years later, he played a sheriff in No Country for Old Men (2007) pursuing an assassin who kills random victims by asking them to call a coin toss.

Mother was Lucille Marie Scott.



Had a younger brother, born three years after the actor, who died in infancy.





Became friends with Al Gore when they were roommates at Harvard University. Jones was asked to host the Nobel Peace Prize concert for Gore, though had to withdraw for personal reasons.



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



Was set to star in Everybody's All-American (1988) in 1982, but the studio backed out partly because they did not believe that Jones was leading man material. Jones has said that he found it all amusing. Dennis Quaid got the part when Taylor Hackford took over the project.



Was set to star in Savior (1998), but had to back out due to other commitments.

Accepted the Texas Legend Award during the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards ceremony held on March 12, 2015 in Austin, Texas.



He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 30, 1994.





He was originally cast as Luke Hobbs in Fast Five (2011), but the role was given to Dwayne Johnson



He appeared in Billy Joel 's music video "Piano Man" (1985).

Personal Quotes (16)

Somebody's gonna give you some money to perform a job, you do your best to make 'em a good hand...



It's no mean calling to bring fun into the afternoons of large numbers of people. That too is part of my job, and I'm happy to serve when called on.



My thanks to the Academy for the very finest, greatest award that any actor can ever receive. The only thing a man can say at a time like this is -- I am not really bald.



I do not have a sense of humor of any recognizable sort.



[on how he learned to direct] I've worked with more than 50 directors and I've paid attention since day one. That's pretty much been my education, apart from studying art history and shooting with my own cameras. I've seen 50 different sets of mistakes and 50 different ways of achieving. You just leave the bad part out.





I really enjoyed a remark that Howard Hawks once made. He said the most important thing is not to ask an actor to do anything he can't do. Same thing goes for horses.

[on working with famous movie stars] I feel pretty lucky. Those guys, they know my name. They know who I am. Not bad for a little Indian boy. Not bad.



You just look for good parts and good stories and a good company to work with. Characters with no integrity are just as interesting as characters with lots of integrity.



I love cinema, and I love agriculture.





[regarding the furor over the violence in Natural Born Killers (1994)] Those who say that a work of art is an invitation to violent anti-social behavior are not very bright.



It's been said, truthfully, that every actor has a moment in every year, at least, when he knows for sure that he'll never work again. That's a more or less humorous way to point to the insecurity that comes with the job. I think that's why [ Laurence Olivier ] said, "If you have any choice at all, don't be an actor".



I bear no resemblance to Douglas MacArthur whatsoever. But a campaign hat, some aviator glasses and a corncob pipe go a long way.



[on Will Smith ] Will is more generous than anyone, and he spreads joy. He walks into a studio, walks onto a set, and he makes certain that everybody's happy. He can't help himself.



Harrison [ Harrison Ford ] is probably the best physical actor working today. I don't simply mean hanging on to the hood of a Nazi truck as it zooms around the desert. He has a way of running that's quite articulate. He uses his body very, very well.

[observation, 2014] The quality of one's emotional life changes over the years, doesn't it? But the basic instincts and desires, greed and hope, seem to remain constant. In the larger scope of things, there's a sense of fulfillment to living a creative life. So I guess that's what keeps me going.





[on his film, The Homesman (2014)] I don't even know what a western is. I'm interested in making films about the history of my country. I think 'western' means the story has horses and big hats. That's about as descriptive as the term can be. What I'm trying to indicate is that I don't think in terms of genre. And yet I will admit that I've made three movies that had horses and big hats, so there must be something there.

Salary (5)