Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Affleck in "The Company Men".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2011
Tommy Lee Jones in "The Sunset Limited".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2011
Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell in "Captain America: The First Avenger".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2012
Tommy Lee Jones in "Lincoln".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2012
Tommy Lee Jones in "Emperor".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2012
Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep in "Hope Springs".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2012
Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep in "Hope Springs".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2012
Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in "Men in Black 3".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2013
Tommy Lee Jones and Robert De Niro in "The Family".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2014
Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank in "The Homesman".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2014
Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank in "The Homesman".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2016
Tommy Lee Jones in "Jason Bourne".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2016
Tommy Lee Jones, Aaron Brumfield and Damian Mavis in "Mechanic: Resurrection".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2016
Tommy Lee Jones in "Criminal".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2017
Tommy Lee Jones in "Just Getting Started".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2017
Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman in "Just Getting Started".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2017
Tommy Lee Jones and Rene Russo in "Just Getting Started".
Gallery of Tommy Jones
2019
Tommy Lee Jones in "Ad Astra".
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Academy Award
1994
Tommy Lee Jones won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in "The Fugitive" (1993) at the 66th Academy Awards.
Tommy Lee Jones's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
1994
Hollywood Boulevard, Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028, United States
Tommy Lee Jones was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with one star on November 30, 1994.
Cannes Film Festival Award
2005
Cannes, France
American actor Tommy Lee Jones speaks after he won the Best Actor Award for his role in "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", which he also directed, at the 58th international Cannes film festival. Spanish actress Penelope Cruz is at right.
Screen Actors Guild Award
2008
665 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007, United States
Actor Tommy Lee Jones in the press room at the TNT/TBS broadcast of the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.
Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award
2012
Zurriola Hiribidea, 1, 20002 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Tommy Lee Jones receives the Donosti Lifetime Achievement Award at the Kursaal Palace during the 60th San Sebastian International Film Festival on September 28, 2012 in San Sebastian, Spain.
American actor Tommy Lee Jones speaks after he won the Best Actor Award for his role in "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", which he also directed, at the 58th international Cannes film festival. Spanish actress Penelope Cruz is at right.
7300 Crandon Blvd, Key Biscayne, FL 33149, United States
Tommy Lee Jones during Mercedes-Benz ACE for a Cure Fashion Extravaganza at the NASDAQ 100 Open at Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne, Florida, United States.
665 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007, United States
Actor Tommy Lee Jones in the press room at the TNT/TBS broadcast of the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.
Zurriola Hiribidea, 1, 20002 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Tommy Lee Jones receives the Donosti Lifetime Achievement Award at the Kursaal Palace during the 60th San Sebastian International Film Festival on September 28, 2012 in San Sebastian, Spain.
Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, New York, 10011, United States
Tommy Lee Jones and Dawn Laurel-Jones attend the International Center of Photography 33rd Annual Infinity Awards at Pier Sixty on April 24, 2017 in New York City.
(A swashbuckling adventure, which takes place in the mid-1...)
A swashbuckling adventure, which takes place in the mid-1800's on the South Pacific islands, where bloody raids and battles were once the rule of the day.
(Down-and-out New York detective Eddie Mallard (Jones) fin...)
Down-and-out New York detective Eddie Mallard (Jones) finds himself involved in the weirdest case of his career, when a wealthy man asks for his help in stopping his ex-wife (Madsen) from harassing him. Mallard finds, that the case may be too much for him, when he discovers, that the woman died ten years ago - and that he is falling in love with her.
(Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wif...)
Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt, led by a seasoned United States Marshal.
(A young boy, who witnessed the suicide of a mafia lawyer,...)
A young boy, who witnessed the suicide of a mafia lawyer, hires an attorney to protect him, when the District Attorney tries to use him to take down a mob family.
(Batman must battle former district attorney Harvey Dent, ...)
Batman must battle former district attorney Harvey Dent, who is now Two-Face and Edward Nygma, The Riddler with help from an amorous psychologist and a young circus acrobat, who becomes his sidekick, Robin.
(When retired engineer Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) is ca...)
When retired engineer Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) is called upon to rescue a failing satellite, he insists, that his equally old teammates accompany him into space.
(A retired military investigator works with a police detec...)
A retired military investigator works with a police detective to uncover the truth behind his son's disappearance, following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.
(The story centers on a year in the life of three men, try...)
The story centers on a year in the life of three men, trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company - and how that affects them, their families and their communities.
(Steve Rogers, a rejected military soldier, transforms int...)
Steve Rogers, a rejected military soldier, transforms into Captain America after taking a dose of a "Super-Soldier serum". But being Captain America comes at a price as he attempts to take down a war monger and a terrorist organization.
(As the American Civil War continues to rage, America's pr...)
As the American Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
(As the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, Gen...)
As the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, General Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the United States.
(Three women, who have been driven mad by pioneer life, ar...)
Three women, who have been driven mad by pioneer life, are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who, in turn, employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.
(In a last-ditch effort to stop a diabolical plot, a dead ...)
In a last-ditch effort to stop a diabolical plot, a dead CIA operative's memories, secrets and skills are implanted into a death-row inmate in hopes, that he will complete the operative's mission.
(A two-hander action comedy in the vein of "Midnight Run" ...)
A two-hander action comedy in the vein of "Midnight Run" (1988), about an ex-F.B.I. Agent (Tommy Lee Jones) and an ex-mob lawyer in the Witness Protection Program (Morgan Freeman), having to put aside their petty rivalry on the golf course to fend off a mob hit.
(Astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across an unfo...)
Astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across an unforgiving solar system to uncover the truth about his missing father and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later, threatens the universe.
Tommy Lee Jones is a well-known American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He gained prominence for his dryly taciturn portrayals of law-enforcement officials, military men and cowboys. Tommy is best known for his roles in "Men in Black", "The Fugitive", "No Country for Old Men" and "Lincoln".
Background
Ethnicity:
Tommy's father, Clyde Jones, was a Welshman. He is also said to be of Cherokee descent.
Tommy Lee Jones was born on September 15, 1946, in San Saba, Texas, United States. He is a son of Clyde C. Jones, an oil field worker, and Lucille Marie (Scott) Jones, a police officer, school teacher and beauty shop owner.
Tommy had a younger brother, born three years after the actor, who died in infancy. Also, he is the first cousin of Boxcar Willie, a famous country singer.
Education
Tommy was reared in Midland, Texas, where he studied at Robert E. Lee High School. In his later years, he left for Dallas and enrolled in the St. Mark's School of Texas, which he attended on a scholarship, finishing the educational establishment in 1965. While at the school, Tommy was also drawn to theatre and appeared in student productions.
Then, Jones studied at Harvard College on a need-based scholarship, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1969. During his college years, Tommy shared a room in Dunster House with the future vice president of the United States, Al Gore.
While at Harvard, Jones also played on the football team, notably participating in the famed 1968 game between Harvard and Yale, that ended in a tie, and continued to appear in theatre productions on campus and with repertory companies during the summers.
After graduation from Harvard College, Tommy, having proved physically unsuited to professional football, decamped to New York City in pursuit of an acting career.
It was in New York City, that Tommy Lee Jones began appearing in theatre productions and made his film debut in the romantic drama "Love Story" (1970), adapted from the novel by Erich Segal. He performed the role of a doctor in 1971-1975 on the television soap opera "One Life to Live" and appeared in the 1976 pilot episode of the action comedy series "Charlie's Angels".
Having moved to Los Angeles in 1975, Jones continued to search for work in television, notably playing film producer Howard Hughes in "The Amazing Howard Hughes" (1977). He made big-screen appearances in "The Betsy" (1978), an adaptation of novelist Harold Robbins's pulpy auto industry melodrama, in which he played a race-car driver; "Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978), a thriller about a fashion photographer, who experiences prescient visions of murder, in which he featured as the killer; and "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980), a biographical film about country singer Loretta Lynn, in which he played her husband.
Later, Tommy portrayed the murderer Gary Gilmore in the 1982 television adaptation of Norman Mailer's biographical novel "The Executioner's Song", for which he earned an Emmy Award, for best actor in a limited series or special. He was also acclaimed for his convincing depiction of a former Texas Ranger in the much-watched television miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (1989), adapted from Larry McMurtry's western novel of the same name. Jones then played Clay Shaw, a Louisiana businessman, suspected of conspiring to assassinate the United States President John F. Kennedy, in "JFK" (1991); the role earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. His turn as a deputy United States marshall, pursuing a doctor (played by Harrison Ford), wrongfully accused of murder, in "The Fugitive" (1993), earned Jones an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor.
In 1994's "The Client", film adaptation of John Grisham's legal thriller, Tommy played an ambitious prosecutor. In "Natural Born Killers" (1994) he appeared as a hyperbolically nasty prison warden. Tommy also performed the role of baseball player Ty Cobb in "Cobb" (1994).
Jones deviated from his characteristic flinty inscrutability with his turn as the deranged villain Two-Face in "Batman Forever" (1995) before playing straight man to Will Smith in the alien comedy "Men in Black" (1997) and its sequels, that followed in 2002 and 2012.
At the beginning of the new millenium Jones returned to more typical roles as a parole officer in pursuit of a wrongfully convicted murderer (Ashley Judd) in "Double Jeopardy" (1999) and as a man, attempting to find his kidnapped granddaughter, in the western "The Missing" (2003). Later, Tommy directed and starred in the grim drama "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" (2005), which traces the efforts of a rancher to return the body of a friend to Mexico, following his accidental shooting. Jones later played a weathered Texas sheriff in the Coen brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" (2007) and a father, trying to locate his son, an Iraq War veteran, in "In the Valley of Elah" (2007).
It was in 2012, that Tommy again assumed the role of a historical figure, this time as a United States congressman, Thaddeus Stevens, in "Lincoln", Steven Spielberg's biopic about the titular United States president. In addition, Jones co-wrote, directed and starred in "The Homesman" (2014), a western about a pioneer woman (played by Hilary Swank) and a claim jumper (Jones), who must shepherd three mentally unstable women from the Nebraska Territory to Iowa in the late 19th century. He later played a doctor, who transfers the consciousness of a dead CIA agent to the brain of a death-row inmate in the thriller "Criminal" (2016).
Tommy joined the cast of "Jason Bourne" (2016), an installment of the action franchise, starring Matt Damon as the titular rogue agent, as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The next year, he turned to comedy in "Just Getting Started", in which he played an ex-FBI agent, who teams up with his rival at a retirement community to save the woman of both their affections from her kidnappers. Jones played a veteran journalist, covering the impending invasion of Iraq in "Shock and Awe" (2017). He later appeared as the missing father of an astronaut (played by Brad Pitt) in the futuristic drama "Ad Astra" (2019).
(Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wif...)
1993
Religion
Jones, well-known for giving reporters a hard time during interviews, has not been forthcoming with his religious views. Many claim he is Jewish, but he attended a non-denominational Christian high school, a prestigious one, for which he earned a scholarship to attend. And he wrote his senior thesis at Harvard on the "Mechanics of Catholicism" in the works of Flannery O'Connor - the Southern American poet. So, Jewish seems sort of out of the question.
Tommy once said: "I'm a believer in belief. Faith is something, that works - it causes people to do things, it has results. It's an intangible, indefinable, very real thing. And it moves people, sometimes to atrocity. And sometimes to survival."
Politics
Jones is a Democrat, though he's flown in the face of the Democratic platform, when it comes to the environment. At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Tommy gave the nominating speech for Al Gore, his roommate during his time at Harvard, as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States.
Views
Quotations:
"Let me explain something you already know. I'm from Texas and we understand the nature of a border. From what I've seen, vigilant Texans are being ordered to stand down and allow criminals to pass. Mr. President, prepare to see Texans ignoring those orders."
"Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They're underused."
"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area."
"I always told my children, when they whined... Only the boring are bored."
"I don't see people as groups, I see them as individuals."
"All my life I've had the privilege to make my living with my imagination, and the most important thing has been to see my creative life grow. I was educated to do that and have lived accordingly."
"I think, that no matter how much you don't like yourself or the drama of your life you can still find some comedy in it."
"Characters with no integrity are just as interesting as characters with lots of integrity."
"I don't get it. If you're saying, Tommy Lee, you don't fit the image of the East Coast, social elitist wealthy people, who comprise Harvard, the only thing I can say is you have no idea what comprises Harvard."
"No director wants to be directed, but no good director... would shy away from the good ideas of others."
"I like everything Meryl does. I like watching her come to work... I don't care... I like everything about her. I like watching her drink coffee. I don't care what she does... She can do no wrong in my eyes."
"Age will flatten a man."
"The most important question in American cinema, I've learned, is "When is lunch?""
"Human beings are glorious and preposterous characters."
"Normal people with normal problems can be hilarious."
Personality
Tommy has a good command of Spanish, which he used to good effect in "Men in Black".
Being a polo player, Jones owns a house in a polo country club in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is a supporter of the Polo Training Foundation. Besides, he is a big fan of San Antonio Spurs, an American professional basketball team.
Besides acting and directing, Jones owned and helped to operate several cattle and horse ranches during his lifetime. He owns a 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) cattle ranch in San Saba County, Texas, and a ranch near Van Horn, Texas, which served as the set for his film "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". Tommy also owns a home and farm in Wellington, Florida
Physical Characteristics:
Tommy's height is about 1.85 m and his weight is approximately 91 kg.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
polo
Connections
During the period from 1971 to 1978, Tommy was married to Kate Lardner, an actress and stepdaughter of screenwriter and journalist Ring Lardner Jr. In 1981, he married Kimberlea Cloughley, a photographer and daughter of Phil Hardberger, former mayor of San Antonio. Their marriage produced two children - Austin Leonard and Victoria Kafka. In 1996, Tommy and Kimberlea divorced.
It was on March 19, 2001, that Jones married his third wife - Dawn Laurel, a photographer.
Father:
Clyde C. Jones
Mother:
Lucille Marie (Scott) Jones
child:
Victoria Kafka Jones
child:
Austin Leonard Jones
first cousin:
Boxcar Willie
ex-wife:
Kate Lardner
ex-wife:
Kimberlea Cloughley
Wife:
Dawn Laurel
ex-father-in-law:
Ring Lardner Jr.
ex-father-in-law:
Phil Hardberger
Friend:
Oliver Stone
Friend:
Al Gore
Friend:
Tom Berenger
References
The Films of Tommy Lee Jones
This work traces the films of Tommy Lee Jones, including roles in "Eyes of Laura Mars", "JFK", "The Fugitive", "The Client" and "Men in Black".
in 2008, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, for "No Country for Old Men" (2007), shared with Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and others;
in 2013, for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for "Lincoln" (2012) - Tommy Lee Jones was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Nicole Kidman accepted the award on his behalf.
in 2008, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, for "No Country for Old Men" (2007), shared with Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and others;
in 2013, for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for "Lincoln" (2012) - Tommy Lee Jones was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenter Nicole Kidman accepted the award on his behalf.