Christopher Jones (actor)
| Christopher Jones | |
|---|---|
Christopher Jones as Jesse James, in 1965.
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| Born |
William Frank Jones August 1, 1941 Jackson, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | January 31, 2014 (aged 72) Los Alamitos, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1960-2014 |
| Spouse(s) |
Susan Strasberg (1965–1968; divorced) Carrie Abernathy (1975–1983; divorced) Paula McKenna (1983–2014; his death) |
| Children | 7 |
William Frank Jones, better known as Christopher Jones (August 1, 1941 – January 31, 2014), was an American stage, movie, and television actor from Jackson, Tennessee.
He was born in Jackson, Tennessee, where his father was a grocery clerk and his mother Robbie was an artist. Jones' father admitted her to the state hospital in Bolivar, Tennessee, in 1945, for holding a gun to his head after he was caught being unfaithful. Jones and his brother were then placed in Boys Town in Memphis, where he became a fan of James Dean after being told he bore a resemblance to him. He then joined the Army, but went AWOL, and after serving a sentence in a military prison, he moved to New York, where he began his acting career. His mother died when he was 19.
Jones (adopting the stage name Christopher) made his Broadway debut on December 17, 1961, in Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana, directed by Frank Corsaro and starring Shelley Winters. Winters introduced Jones to actress Susan Strasberg, the daughter of method acting progenitor Lee Strasberg. Jones later studied at Strasberg's Actors Studio. Despite friction with her father, Jones married Susan in 1965. The couple had a daughter, Jennifer Robin Jones, in 1966, named as a tribute to actress Jennifer Jones.
Moving to Hollywood, Jones was cast in the title role of ABC's television series The Legend of Jesse James (produced by 20th Century Fox), which ran for 34 episodes in the 1965–66 season. When the series ended, he accepted the title role in the 1968 movie Chubasco (1968) with Susan Strasberg playing his character's lover/wife. Their real marriage did not survive the filming, and they divorced in 1968.
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