American postcard by Slow Dazzle Worldwide, no. 19 in a series of 16, no. 1621. Photo: DC Comics, 1995. Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Caption: Half man, half madman, he's the ultimate dual personality. Two-Face is the former Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent, who mistakenly blames Batman for an accident that left one side of his face grotesquely deformed. And now he's out to get Batman!
A strong, explosive, thoughtful actor who could handle supporting and leading roles
Tommy Lee Jones was born in 1946 in San Saba, Texas. He was the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked in oil fields. Tommy himself worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship. On another scholarship, he 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. He received a B.A. in English literature and graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1969.
Following college, he moved to New York and began his stage career on Broadway in 'A Patriot for Me' with Maximilian Schell, which closed after 49 performances. In 1970, he appeared in his first film, Love Story (Arthur Hiller, 1970), 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 his roommate Gore provided the models for author Erich Segal while he was writing the character of Oliver, the book's (and film's) protagonist.
While living in New York, he continued to appear in various plays, both on- and off-Broadway: 'Fortune and Men's Eyes' (1969), Abe Burrows' 'Four on a Garden' (1971), 'Blue Boys' (1972), and 'Ulysses in Nighttown (1974). Between 1971 and 1975 he portrayed Dr. Mark Toland on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. Jones got his first film lead in the obscure Canadian film Eliza's Horoscope (Gordon Sheppard, 1975). With his first wife, Kate Lardner, granddaughter of short-story writer/columnist Ring Lardner, and her two children from a previous marriage, he moved to Los Angeles. Jones gained national attention in 1977 when he was cast in the title role in the TV miniseries The Amazing Howard Hughes (William A. Graham, 1977). His resemblance to the American aviation pioneer and filmmaker - both vocally and visually - was positively uncanny.
In the cinema, he played an escaped convict hunted in the exploitation crime thriller Jackson County Jail (Michael Miller, 1976), a Vietnam veteran in the thriller Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977), based on a story by Paul Schrader, an automobile mogul in the Harold Robbins drama The Betsy (Daniel Petrie, 1978) with Laurence Olivier, and opposite Faye Dunaway in the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (Irvin Kershner, 1978), written by John Carpenter. In 1980, Jones earned his first Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn's husband, Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn, in Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980), starring Sissy Spacek. While working on the film Back Roads (Martin Ritt, 1981), he met and fell in love with Kimberlea Cloughley, whom he later married.
Tommy Lee Jones won further acclaim and an Emmy for his startling performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song (Lawrence Schiller, 1982), based on the book by Norman Mailer. Maria Vitale at IMDb: "More roles in television, on stage, and in films garnered him a reputation as a strong, explosive, thoughtful actor who could handle supporting as well as leading roles." Jones spent the rest of the 1980s working in both television and film, doing his most notable work on such TV miniseries as Lonesome Dove (Simon Wincer, 1989), for which he earned another Emmy nomination.
British postcard by Star Images, London, no. M.002. Photo: Columbia Pictures, 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997). Caption: Mr. Jones, Mr. Smith, protecting the earth from the scum of the universe.
A Golden Globe for his driven, starkly funny portrayal of a U.S. Marshal
It was not until the early 1990s that Tommy Lee Jones became a substantial figure in Hollywood, a position catalyzed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in Oliver Stone's epic political thriller JFK (1991) which examines the events leading to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the alleged cover-up through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner).
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 (Andrew Davis, 1993), starring Harrison Ford. 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 (Oliver Stone, 1994); titular baseball hero Ty Cobb in Cobb (Ron Shelton, 1994); a troubled army captain in Blue Sky (Tony Richardson, 1994); a wily federal attorney in the John Grisham adaptation The Client (Joel Schumacher, 1994); and a psychotic bomber in Blown Away (Stephen Hopkins, 1994) opposite Jeff Bridges.
Jones was also attached to several big-budget action films, hamming it up as the crazed Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995); donning sunglasses and an attitude to play special agent K in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997); and reprising his Fugitive role for the film's sequel, U.S. Marshals (Stuart Baird, 1998).
The following year, he continued this trend, playing Ashley Judd's parole officer in the psychological thriller Double Jeopardy (Bruce Beresford, 1999). The late 1990s and millennial turnover found Jones' popularity soaring, and the distinguished actor continued to develop a successful comic screen persona in such films as Space Cowboys (Clint Eastwood, 2000) and Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002), in addition to maintaining his dramatic clout with roles in such thrillers as Rules of Engagement (William Friedkin, 2000) and The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003).
Dutch postcard by Boomerang. Photo: Amblin Entertainment / Columbia Pictures. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002). Caption: Back in black.
The consummate corporate bad guy played with his trademark grit
2005 brought a comedic turn for Tommy Lee Jones who starred in the madcap comedy Man of the House (Stephen Herek, 2005) as a grizzled police officer who has 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 Neo-Western The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005). His performance won him the Best Actor Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
Jones appeared in the film adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006), based on Garrison Keillor's long-running radio show. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film'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 consummate corporate bad guy with his trademark grit."
He headlined the Iraq war drama In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007). His work as the veteran father of a son who died in the war earned him strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. However, more people saw Jones' other film from that year, the Coen brothers' adaptation of No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007). 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.
The actor co-starred with Stanley Tucci and Neal McDonough in the blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011) opposite Chris Evans, and reprised his role as a secret agent in Men in Black 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2011). In 2012 he played a Congressman fighting to help Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) end slavery in Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012), a role that led to an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He recently appeared in the Science-Fiction film Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) starring Brad Pitt, in the comedy The Comeback Trail (George Gallo, 2020) with Robert De Niro, and the Legal Drama The Burial (Maggie Betts, 2023) opposite Jamie Foxx. Tommy Lee Jones and Kimberlea Cloughley have two children, Austin Leonard Jones (1982), and Victoria Jones (1991). After his divorce from Cloughley in 1996, he married Dawn Jones in 2001.
Belgian postcard by Boomerang Free Cards. Photo: Warner Bros. Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
British postcard by Star Images, London, no. M.003. Photo: Columbia Pictures, 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997). Caption: Protecting the Earth from the Scum of the Universe.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Maria Vitale (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 27 November 2024.
