Henry Jones Sr. | |
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Indiana Jones character | |
Henry Jones Sr. (left)
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First appearance | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade |
Portrayed by |
Sean Connery Lloyd Owen Alex Hyde-White |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation |
Archaeologist Professor of Medieval Literature |
Spouse(s) | Anna Mary Jones (wife) (deceased) |
Children |
Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones Jr. (son) Susie Jones (daughter) (deceased) |
Relatives |
Henry Walton "Mutt" Jones III (grandson) Unnamed granddaughter Grace Jones (sister) Fred (brother-in-law) Frank (nephew) Deirdre Campbell (ex-daughter-in-law) Marion Ravenwood (daughter-in-law) Caroline (great-granddaughter) Henry Walton "Spike" Jones IV (great-grandson) Lucy Jones (great-granddaughter) Annie Jones (great-great-granddaughter) Henry Walton "Harry" Jones V (great-great-grandson) |
Religion | Christian |
Nationality | Scottish |
Professor Henry Walton Jones Sr. is a fictional character in the Indiana Jones franchise. He is the father of Indiana Jones. Henry Jones Sr. is professor, speaker, and author. As a professor of medieval studies at Princeton University he has authored many books and has spoken at conferences all over the world.
The character was portrayed by Sean Connery in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Alex Hyde-White cameoed as the younger Henry in the film's prologue (though his face was not seen, and Connery dubbed his voice). Lloyd Owen played Henry in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series. The character also made appearances in novels and a comic book.
The father of renowned archaeologist Indiana Jones, Henry was born in Scotland on December 12, 1872. He is a professor of medieval literature, having received his degree from the University of Oxford on June 5, 1899 and is, according to his son, "the (professor) the students hope they don't get".
A driven man, Henry was fascinated by the search for the Holy Grail, keeping all the clues he found regarding its whereabouts in his Grail diary. He is apparently a Christian (although his denomination is unclear). He also does not tolerate his son using Jesus's name in vain, slapping the younger Henry across the face when he does so and telling him, "That's for blasphemy!"
Seemingly finding parenting difficult, Henry Sr. mostly bonded with his son through their mutual fascination with history. After the death of his wife Anna from influenza, the gulf between father and son grew to the point where they rarely spoke. Henry claims that he taught his son "self reliance" this way, while Indiana felt that his father simply cared more about his intellectual pursuits than he did about his own son, saying "What you taught me, was that I was less important to you than some people who'd been dead for 500 years in another country." To Indiana's constant exasperation, Henry refers to his son only as "Junior" (ironically, Indiana does the same thing to his own son), until the end of The Last Crusade when he finally calls him "Indiana". As he was not a hands-on father, Indiana resented his father's aloof, distant nature, which may have influenced his own inability to settle down and start a family for much of his life, and also resented his father's lifelong pursuit of the quest for the Holy Grail. When Henry explains that the search for the Grail is "a race against evil", Indy lashes out at him: "This is an obsession, Dad! I never understood it! Never!" Because of aloofness as a father, Indy embraced his father's friend Marcus Brody as a father figure and role model. Another factor which deteriorated Indiana and Henry's relationship was Indiana going off to enlist in the Belgian Army for World War I in 1916 without his father's consent, and the two went three years without seeing each other.