Harvard graduate, ex-football star, and widely respected actor and director Tommy Lee Jones has had an illustrious 30-year career in Hollywood. Born in San Saba, Texas on September 15, 1946, Jones attended the boys’ prep school St. Mark’s of Texas in Dallas before moving on to Harvard on a scholarship. While studying at the prestigious university in Cambridge, MA, Jones roomed briefly with former Vice President Al Gore and legendary actor John Lithgow, and was a valued member of the Harvard football team. The young athlete was a starting offensive guard, and played in the famous Harvard-Yale tie of 1968. He graduated cum laude with a degree in English in 1969.
Jones moved to New York City to pursue acting after college, and made his film debut in the Harvard-set 1970 melodrama “Love Story”. Vice President Gore quipped in his 2000 campaign for President that Ryan O’Neal’s character in the film was a hybrid of him and Jones. While also appearing in numerous Broadway productions, Jones starred in the long-running soap opera “One Life to Live” from 1971-75. The actor soon moved to L.A. with then-wife Kate Lardner, where he gained a reputation as a reliable and strong supporting actor in television shows like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Beretta”, as well as major roles in films such as “The Eyes of Laura Mars” opposite Faye Dunaway, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” with Sissy Spacek, and “Back Roads” with Sally Field. The intense performer may have seemed an unlikely leading man, but nonetheless gave exceptional performances alongside a string of gorgeous actresses, and he received wide acclaim for his ability to inhabit difficult supporting roles as well.
Jones picked up an Emmy in 1983 for his lead role in the television adaptation of Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song”, and was nominated again in 1989 for his performance in the popular Larry McMurtry-penned “Lonesome Dove” mini-series. In the 1990s Jones became an A-list film star after his Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Oliver Stone’s “JFK” in 1991, and he finally won the coveted award in 1993 for “The Fugitive”. His role as an unforgiving U.S. marshal in the blockbuster thriller saw him chew up scenery alongside Harrison Ford, and he reprised the role in 1998’s “U.S. Marshals”. Jones had few flops in the 90s, starring mainly in popular high-brow thrillers and action films including John Grisham’s “The Client”, “Natural Born Killers”, the disaster movie “Volcano”, “Batman Forever”, “Double Jeopardy”, and the enormously successful “Men in Black”, which brilliantly paired his deadpan intensity with a goofy Will Smith. The sci-fi comedy blockbuster spawned a hit 2002 sequel, and a third entry is rumored to be in the works.
Recently Jones has continued performing in popular thrillers like “Rules of Engagement” alongside Samuel L. Jackson, the Clint Eastwood-starring “Space Cowboys”, and Ron Howard’s “The Missing” with fellow Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett. In 2005 Jones directed and starred in the modern western “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”, which won him the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The film didn’t catch on in the U.S., hence robbing Jones of a much deserved third Oscar nod. He is soon to be seen in the hotly anticipated Robert Altman adaptation of “A Prairie Home Companion”.