Dean Jones

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Dean Jones in 1966

Dean Jones (born January 25, 1931 in Decatur , Alabama , † September 1, 2015 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor . He became known to a wide audience primarily through his appearances in Disney feature films. He played the role of racing driver Jim Douglas in the Herbie films.

Life

He starred in many Disney films in the 1960s and 1970s and was one of the stars of the studio. He achieved great popularity in the role of Jim Douglas , the owner of the VW Beetle Herbie , in the film Ein toller Käfer ( The Love Bug , 1968). In the 1990s he appeared in a few remakes of his previous Disney hits, including again as Jim Douglas .

Dean Jones served in the United States Navy during the Korean War . He then attended Asbury College in Wilmore , Kentucky , but left it without a degree. He started as an actor at the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm in California . From the mid-1950s he also received smaller film roles in Hollywood .

However, he had his breakthrough as an actor on Broadway in 1960 with the play Marry Me, Darling! (Under the Yum-Yum Tree) by Lawrence Roman - a success that he repeated in the 1963 film adaptation of David Swift alongside Jack Lemmon . This earned him a contract with Walt Disney , who used Jones in the more contemporary feature film comedies of his studio. For the actor, the time in the Disney studios, for which he made films until the late 1970s, was the high point of his career. The attempt to continue his successful role as Jim Douglas in the television series Herbie, the Love Bug (1982) failed, and the series was discontinued after only five episodes. In the mid-1990s, however, Jones returned to the Disney studios for some remakes of his old successes.

For his services to the studio and its filmmaking, the Walt Disney Company named him a " Disney Legend " in 1995 .

Jones starred in 46 films and five Broadway shows. In addition, Dean Jones has also tried his hand at musicals as a singer.

Jones was married for 42 years to his wife Lory, with whom he had a son. His first marriage resulted in two daughters. He died on September 1, 2015 at the age of 84 in Los Angeles of complications from Parkinson's disease .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1956: Somebody Up There Likes Me
  • 1956: The Heart of a Millionaire (These Wilder Years)
  • 1956: Different from the others (Tea and Sympathy)
  • 1956: The Opposite Sex
  • 1956: Indictment: High Treason (The Rack)
  • 1956: The Great American Pastime
  • 1956: Deadly Scandal (Slander)
  • 1957: Ten Thousand Bedrooms
  • 1957: Why did I say yes! (Designing Woman)
  • 1957: Land Without Men (Until They Sail)
  • 1957: Jailhouse Rock - rhythm behind bars (Jailhouse Rock)
  • 1958: Handle with Care
  • 1958: Imitation General
  • 1958: Torpedo go! (Torpedo Run)
  • 1959: Night of the Quarter Moon
  • 1959: Barefoot for Eternity (Never So Few)
  • 1963: A marriage bed for rehearsal (Under the Yum Yum Tree)
  • 1964: Interns (The New Interns)
  • 1965: The Magician's Testament (Two on a Guillotine)
  • 1965: Everything for the cat (That Darn Cat!)
  • 1966: Beloved Domestic Tyrant (The Ugly Dachshund)
  • 1966: Any Wednesday
  • 1967: Monkeys, Go Home - Throw the monkeys out (Monkeys, Go Home!)
  • 1968: Captain Blackbeard's Spuk-Kaschemme (Blackbeard's Ghost)
  • 1968: The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit
  • 1968: A great beetle (The Love Bug)
  • 1970: Mr. Superinvisible
  • 1971: The Million Dollar Duck
  • 1972: Inheritance in White (Snowball Express)
  • 1974: Sugarland Express (The Sugarland Express)
  • 1976: Zotti, the Urviech (Shaggy DA)
  • 1977: The great Beetle in the Monte Carlo Rally (Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo)
  • 1978: Once Upon A Brothers Grimm (TV movie)
  • 1978: Who Throws the First Stone ... (When Every Day Was the Fourth of July) (TV movie)
  • 1978: The Colson Affair (Born Again)
  • 1980: The Long Days of Summer (TV movie)
  • 1982: Herbie, The Love Bug (TV series)
  • 1986: St. John in Exile
  • 1989: Bloody Rain (Fire and Rain) (TV movie)
  • 1991: Other People's Money (Other People's Money)
  • 1992: California High School - Hot Vacations and Intrigue (TV movie)
  • 1992: a dog named Beethoven (Beethoven)
  • 1994: The Cartel (Clear and Present Danger)
  • 1994: The Visual Bible: Acts
  • 1995: Dexter Riley - The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (TV movie)
  • 1997: A Love Bug (The Love Bug) (TV movie)
  • 1997: That Darn Cat (That Darn Cat)
  • 1998: Batman & Mr. Freeze - Ice Age (voice)
  • 2001: Scrooge and Marley (TV movie)
  • 2007: Lavinia's Heist (short film)
  • 2009: Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (Mandie and the Secret Tunnel)
  • 2009: God Provides (TV movie)

Broadway appearances

  • 1960: There Was a Little Girl
  • 1960: Under the Yum-Yum Tree (Eng. Marry me, darling! )
  • 1970: Company
  • 1986: Into the Light
  • 1993: Company (revival)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Associated Press : Dean Jones, star of the Herbie films, dies aged 84. In: The Guardian , September 3, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015.
  2. ↑ Mike Flaherty: Dean Jones, Star of Disney's 'The Love Bug,' Dies at 84. In: The New York Times , September 2, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015.
  3. ↑ Alex Stedman: Dean Jones, 'The Love Bug' Star, Dies at 84. In: Variety , September 2, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Jones, Dean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Decatur , Alabama, USA
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 2015
Place of death Los Angeles , California