Henry Jones(1912-1999)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Henry Burk Jones was born in New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Helen (Burk) and John Francis Xavier Jones, and the grandson of Pennsylvania Representative Henry Burk, a Prussian immigrant. He graduated from
St. Joseph's College. His Broadway debut was in 1938 in
Maurice Evans' "Hamlet" (Reynaldo
and the second gravedigger). He served in the army in World War II. His
highly-reviewed stage appearances included the murdered handyman in
"The Bad Seed," which he reprised in the film version
(The Bad Seed (1956)), and the part
of Louis Howe, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's confidant
in
Sunrise at Campobello (1960).
Though very ordinary in appearance ("The casting directors didn't know
what to do with me. I was never tall enough or good looking enough to
play juvenile leads"), he had a long and varied career on Broadway, in
movies and television. His parts included a wide range of second-string
roles (ministers, judges, janitors), often with a dark and even
frightening underside. His television career, which included over 150
appearances, began early, in 1950. Though his movies included such
well-known titles as
Oh! For a Man! (1957),
3:10 to Yuma (1957),
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969),
The Grifters (1990), and
Dick Tracy (1990) no doubt his most
recognizable screen performance was in the brief role of the
methodical, nearly cruel coroner in
Alfred Hitchcock's
Vertigo (1958). He lived in Santa Monica,
CA, and died 17 May 1999, aged 86, at the UCLA Medical Center.
