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Tommy Lee Jones
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Sam Elliott
James Stewart
Robert Duvall
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Walter Brennen
Randolph Scott
Clint Eastwood
Tommy Lee Jones
John Wayne
Joel McCrea
Tom Selleck
Audie Murphy
Robert Taylor
Gene Hackman
Andy Devine
Burt Lancaster
Gary Cooper
Alan Ladd
Kevin Costner
Kirk Douglas
Lee Marvin
Paul Newman
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Born: 15-Sep-1946
Birthplace: San Saba, TX
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Men in Black
Tommy Lee Jones's mother was a cop and a beautician, and his father was an oil rig worker and a heavy drinker who was sometimes abusive to his family. They were married and divorced twice. Young Tommy attended Dallas's prestigious St. Mark's School (on a scholarship, Jones points out). He played football and stumbled into acting by accident, and it changed his life. "One day I happened to walk into a practice room and came upon a rehearsal of Mister Roberts. Almost immediately, I started acting in plays... My feelings at this discovery were indescribable". He attended Harvard, where he played offensive guard on the football team and won all-Ivy League athletic honors, but Jones was too scrawny to play professional football. At Harvard, his roommates were Al Gore and, later, John Lithgow. Erich Segal, who attended and later taught at Harvard, has mentioned both Jones and Gore as models for the character of Oliver in Segal's novel, Love Story. Jones actually had a small role in the film version of Love Story, long before he was famous.
Jones performed in summer rep in Cambridge and Boston, and eventually came to New York, where he made his Broadway stage debut in A Patriot for Me, in 1970. He played Dr. Mark Toland on the soap opera One Life to Live from 1971-75, while still appearing in plays. Weary of holding two jobs, Jones left for Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, where he quickly found work in low-budget films and the pilot episode of TV's Charlie's Angels. In 1976 he landed the lead in the film Jackson County Jail, and in 1977 he played The Amazing Howard Hughes in a TV movie, to great acclaim. Jones worked steadily in films and TV until 1989's Lonesome Dove made him a household name. Since then, he's worked almost exclusively in film, including JFK, The Client, The Fugitive, Men in Black and its sequel, Space Cowboys, and The Missing.
In front of the camera, Jones is famous for his short temper with other actors and general grumpiness with journalists. When he's not working, Jones frequently hobnobs with pals Willie Nelson, Gary Busey, Oliver Stone, and Robert Duvall. Jones owns a working cattle ranch near San Antonio, TX. He plays polo competitively, and his team won the U.S. Polo Association's Western Challenge Cup in 1993. In 1998, Jones was injured falling from his horse in a polo match.
Father: Clyde L. Jones (oil rigger)
Mother: Lucille Marie Scott Jones (police officer)
Wife: Katherine Lardner (actress, m. 1971; div. 1978)
Wife: Kimberlea Gayle Cloughley (photographer, m. 30-May-1981, div. 1996)
Son: Austin Leonard "Bubba" Jones (b. 1983)
Daughter: Victoria Kafka "Tory" Jones (b. 1991)
Girlfriend: Lisa Taylor (model)
Wife: Dawn Laurel (camera assistant, m. 19-Mar-2001)
High School: St. Mark's School of Texas (1965)
University: BA American Literature, Harvard University (1969)
An eighth-generation Texan, actor Tommy Lee Jones attended Harvard University, where he roomed with future U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Though several of his less-knowledgeable fans have tended to dismiss Jones as a roughhewn redneck, the actor was equally at home on the polo fields (he's a champion player) as the oil fields, where he made his living for many years. After graduating cum laude from Harvard in 1969, Jones made his stage debut that same year in A Patriot for Me; in 1970, he appeared in his first film, Love Story (listed way, way down the cast list as one of Ryan O'Neal's fraternity buddies).
Interestingly enough, while Jones was at Harvard, he and roommate Gore provided the models for author Erich Segal while he was writing the character of Oliver, the book's (and film's) protagonist. After this supporting role, Jones got his first film lead in the obscure Canadian film Eliza's Horoscope (1975). Following a spell on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, he gained national attention in 1977 when he was cast in the title role in the TV miniseries The Amazing Howard Hughes, his resemblance to the title character -- both vocally and visually -- positively uncanny.
Five years later, Jones won further acclaim and an Emmy for his startling performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song. Jones spent the rest of the '80s working in both television and film, doing his most notable work on such TV miniseries as Lonesome Dove (1989), for which he earned another Emmy nomination. It was not until the early '90s that the actor became a substantial figure in Hollywood, a position catalyzed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in Oliver Stone's JFK. In 1993, Jones won both that award and a Golden Globe for his driven, starkly funny portrayal of U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard in The Fugitive. His subsequent work during the decade was prolific and enormously varied.
In 1994 alone, he could be seen as an insane prison warden in Natural Born Killers; titular baseball hero Ty Cobb in Cobb; a troubled army captain in Blue Sky; a wily federal attorney in The Client; and a psychotic bomber in Blown Away. Jones was also attached to a number of big-budget action movies, hamming it up as the crazed Two-Face in Batman Forever (1995); donning sunglasses and an attitude to play a special agent in Men in Black (1997); and reprising his Fugitive role for the film's 1998 sequel, U.S. Marshals. The following year, he continued this trend, playing Ashley Judd's parole officer in the psychological thriller Double Jeopardy.
The late '90s and millennial turnover found Jones' popularity soaring, and the distinguished actor continued to develop a successful comic screen persona (Space Cowboys [2000] and Men in Black II [2002]), in addition to maintaining his dramatic clout with roles in such thrillers as The Rules of Engagement (2000) and The Hunted (2003).2005 brought a comedic turn for the actor, who starred in the madcap comedy Man of the House as a grizzled police officer in tasked to protect a house full of cheerleaders who witnessed a murder.
Jones also took a stab at directing that year, helming and starring in the western crime drama The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. In 2006, Jones appeared in Robert Altman's film adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion, based on Garrison Keillor's long running radio show. The movie's legendary director, much loved source material and all-star cast made the film a safe bet for the actor, who hadn't done much in the way of musical comedy. Jones played the consumate corporate bad guy with his trademark grit.2007 brought two major roles for the actor. He headlined the Iraq war drama In the Valley of Elah for director Paul Haggis.
His work as the veteran father of a son who died in the war earned him strong reviews and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. However more people saw Jones' other film from that year, the Coen brothers adaptation of No Country for Old Men. His work as a middle-aged Texas sheriff haunted by the acts of the evil man he hunts earned him a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Gore 2000
Kerry Victory 2004
Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 1994 for Fugitive
Golden Globe 1994 for Fugitive
Emmy 1983 for The Executioner's Song
Hollywood Walk of Fame 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
The Sunset Limited (12-Feb-2011)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (20-May-2005)
The Good Old Boys (5-Mar-1995)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Captain America: The First Avenger (22-Jul-2011)
The Sunset Limited (12-Feb-2011) � White
The Company Men (22-Jan-2010)
In the Electric Mist (7-Feb-2009) � Dave Robicheaux
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (5-Sep-2008) � Himself
In the Valley of Elah (1-Sep-2007)
No Country for Old Men (19-May-2007) 
A Prairie Home Companion (12-Feb-2006)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (20-May-2005)
Man of the House (25-Feb-2005)
The Missing (26-Nov-2003) � Samuel Jones
The Hunted (11-Mar-2003)
Men in Black II (26-Jun-2002) � Kevin Brown
Space Cowboys (1-Aug-2000) � Hawk Hawkins
Rules of Engagement (31-Mar-2000)
Double Jeopardy (21-Sep-1999)
Small Soldiers (10-Jul-1998) � Chip Hazard [VOICE]
U.S. Marshals (6-Mar-1998)
Men in Black (2-Jul-1997) � Kay
Volcano (25-Apr-1997) � Mike Roark
Batman Forever (16-Jun-1995) � Harvey Two-Face
The Good Old Boys (5-Mar-1995)
Cobb (2-Dec-1994) � Ty Cobb
Blue Sky (9-Sep-1994)
Natural Born Killers (26-Aug-1994) � Warden Dwight McClusky
The Client (20-Jul-1994)
Blown Away (1-Jul-1994) � Gaerity
The Fugitive (6-Aug-1993)
House of Cards (25-Jun-1993)
Heaven & Earth (20-Jan-1993)
Under Siege (9-Oct-1992)
JFK (20-Dec-1991)
Fire Birds (25-May-1990)
The Package (25-Aug-1989)
Lonesome Dove (5-Feb-1989)
Gotham (21-Aug-1988)
April Morning (24-Apr-1988)
Stormy Monday (22-Apr-1988)
The Big Town (25-Sep-1987)
Broken Vows (28-Jan-1987)
Black Moon Rising (10-Jan-1986) � Quint
The Park Is Mine (3-Jan-1986)
The River Rat (28-Sep-1984) � Billy
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (19-Aug-1984) � Brick Pollitt
Nate and Hayes (18-Nov-1983)
The Executioner's Song (10-Sep-1982)
Back Roads (13-Mar-1981)
Coal Miner's Daughter (22-Feb-1980) � Doolittle Lynn
Eyes of Laura Mars (2-Aug-1978)
The Betsy (9-Feb-1978) � Angelo Perino
Rolling Thunder (14-Oct-1977)
The Amazing Howard Hughes (13-Apr-1977)
Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (3-Dec-1976)
Jackson County Jail (28-Jul-1976)
Love Story (16-Dec-1970)
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