Henry Burk Jones (August 1, 1912 – May 17, 1999) was an American actor of stage, film and television.
Jones was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Helen (née Burk) and John Francis Xavier Jones. He was the grandson of Pennsylvania Representative Henry Burk. He attended the Jesuit-run Saint Joseph's Preparatory School.
Jones is remembered for his role as handyman Leroy Jessup in the movie The Bad Seed (1956), a role he originated on Broadway. Other theater credits included My Sister Eileen, Hamlet, The Time of Your Life, They Knew What They Wanted, The Solid Gold Cadillac, and Sunrise at Campobello, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Performance in a Drama.
Jones appeared in more than 180 movies and television shows. His screen credits included The Girl Can't Help It, 3:10 to Yuma, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Vertigo, Cash McCall, The Bramble Bush, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Dirty Dingus Magee, Support Your Local Gunfighter, 9 to 5 (film) and Arachnophobia.
On television, Jones' best remembered role was as the title character's father-in-law in the 1970s sitcom Phyllis. He also appeared on television in Appointment with Adventure, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Eleventh Hour, Channing, Night Gallery, Emergency!, The Mod Squad, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Adam 12, Father Knows Best, The Dukes of Hazzard and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. He played Dr. Smith's cousin in a 1966 episode of Lost In Space, "Curse Of Cousin Smith", and alongside R.J. Hoferkamp in the 1968 made-for-television western movie Something for a Lonely Man. In 1967 he guest starred in the episode "A Time to Die" of the Sci-Fi TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's 4th season.
Jones died in Los Angeles, California, at age 86, from complications from injuries suffered in a fall.
Famous quotes containing the words henry and/or jones:
“Go, grandly borne, with such a train
As greatest kings might die to gain.
The just, the wise, the brave,
Attend thee to the grave.”
—Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903)
“Men’s hearts are cold. They are indifferent. Not all the coal that is dug warms the world. It remains indifferent to the lives of those who risk their life and health down in the blackness of the earth; who crawl through dark, choking crevices with only a bit of lamp on their caps to light their silent way; whose backs are bent with toil, whose very bones ache, whose happiness is sleep, and whose peace is death.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)