Dean Jones

Dean Jones (born January 25, 1931) is an American actor. Jones is best known for his leading roles in several Walt Disney movies between 1965 and 1977. Jones was born in Decatur, the seat of Morgan County in northern Alabama, located southwest of the larger city of Huntsville. His parents were the former Nolia Elizabeth White (1902-1977) and Andrew Guy Jones (1901-1974), who was a traveling construction worker.

Jones was born in Decatur, the seat of Morgan County in northern Alabama, located southwest of the larger city of Huntsville. His parents were the former Nolia Elizabeth White (1902-1977) and Andrew Guy Jones (1901-1974), who was a traveling construction worker. Dean Jones served in the United States Navy during the Korean War, where he was responsible, in part, for the reduction of venereal disease in his unit by putting on shows for the men during shore leave, after which he worked at the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.

After having appeared in a string of minor film and television roles, Jones made his Broadway debut (along with Jane Fonda) in the short-lived 1960 play There Was a Little Girl. He had stepped into the role in Boston with only one day's notice. Later that year, he played Dave Manning in the Broadway comedy Under the Yum-Yum Tree, a role he would repeat in the 1963 movie version starring Jack Lemmon. After achieving success in film and television, Jones was set to return to Broadway as the star of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's new musical Company. But during out-of-town previews, Jones was uncomfortable with the negative reaction to his character he received from the audience and asked to withdraw from the show. Director Harold Prince agreed to replace him with Larry Kert if Jones would open the show and record the cast album. Jones agreed and his performance is preserved on the original cast album (although it was Larry Kert who received the Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical).

In 1986, Jones, by then having become a Christian, starred in Into the Light, a musical about scientists and the Shroud of Turin, which closed four days after it opened. He had far more success touring in the one-man show St. John in Exile. In this production Jones portrayed St. John, the last surviving Apostle of Jesus Christ, reminiscing about his life while imprisoned on the Greek island of Patmos. A performance was filmed in 1986 and continues to sell steadily in Christian markets. He made one more Broadway appearance in 1993 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in a special two-day concert staging of Company featuring most of the original Broadway cast.