Tommy Lee Jones
☼ Born on 15 December 1946, in San Saba, Texas, USA
Biography
Tommy Lee Jones was born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked on 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, and went to Harvard on another scholarship. He roomed with future Vice President Al Gore and played offensive guard in the famous 29-29 Harvard-Yale football game of '68 known as "The Tie." 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 theatrical career on Broadway in "A Patriot for Me" (1969). In 1970, he made his film debut in Love Story (1970). While living in New York, he continued to appear in various plays, both on- and off-Broadway: "Fortune and Men's Eyes" (1969); "Four on a Garden" (1971); "Blue Boys" (1972); "Ulysses in Nighttown" (1974). During this time, he also appeared on a daytime soap opera, One Life to Live (1968) as Dr. Mark Toland from 1971-75. He moved with wife Kate Lardner, granddaughter of short-story writer/columnist Ring Lardner, and her two children from a previous marriage, to Los Angeles.
There he began to get some roles on television: Charlie's Angels (1976) (pilot episode); Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976); and The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977). While working on the movie Back Roads (1981), he met and fell in love with Kimb
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erlea Cloughley, whom he later married. More roles in television--both on network and cable--stage and film garnered him a reputation as a strong, explosive, thoughtful actor who could handle supporting as well as leading roles. He made his directorial debut in The Good Old Boys (1995) on TNT. In addition to directing and starring in the film, he co-wrote the teleplay (with J.T. Allen). The film, based on Elmer Kelton's novel, is set in west Texas where Jones has strong family ties. Consequently, this story of a cowboy facing the end of an era has special meaning for him.
In the role of actor
Hunted (22/08/2020)
A woman runs from a predatory man in the woods in Hunted. Eve (Lucie Debay) is a French actress who meets a seemingly charming Man (Arieh Worthalter) in a bar, who helps her to fend off a guy trying to pick her up. However, it soon turn out that this stranger is a sexual predator, […]
Ad Astra (23/09/2019)
An astronaut travels to the farthest reaches of the solar system to locate his long-lost father in Ad Astra. In the near future, humanity has set up colonies on the moon and Mars and have sent out missions to find signs of intelligent life in space. Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is an astronaut following […]
Jason Bourne (31/07/2016)
The amnesiac assassin returns in Jason Bourne. A decade after remembering who he is and exposing the CIA’s Blackbriar project, former assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has been keeping a low profile overseas. However, when former CIA tech Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks into the agency’s database and finds some new information about Bourne, she travels to […]
Lincoln (23/01/2013)
Part of me wishes that I went out and saw Steven Spielberg‘s biopic of Abraham Lincoln before the Oscar nominations were announced and Lincoln became the leading film with 12 nominations, including Best Picture. Whether I wanted to or not, this status was going to affect the way that I viewed the film. Instead of […]
Men in Black III (27/05/2012)
It would be understandable for someone to be apprehensive about a second sequel to the sci-fi/comedy Men in Black. 2002’s Men in Black II didn’t have the same charm as the 1997 original and the fact that it took a full decade for a third chapter to be made seemed to hint that people weren’t exactly clamoring for […]
Captain America: The First Avenger (23/07/2011)
Captain America is the final of the interconnected Marvel comics films leading up to next year’s release of The Avengers. I still think it’s amazing the they had the patience to set-up The Avengers over the course of five separate films in a four year period. At this point, I don’t think I need to say that […]
No Country for Old Men (11/11/2007)
During their career, the Coen brothers went back and forth between dark dramas and comedies. During the 11 1/2 years since the release of Fargo, they really leaned onto the latter with only 2001’s The Man Who Wasn’t There being the only real non-comedy released during that time. As such, you can call No Country […]