Biography

A moodily handsome leading player of the 1960s, Christopher Jones retreated from the entertainment industry after portraying Sarah Miles' English lover in David Lean's "Ryan's Daughter" (1970). He only acted in one more film before his death in 2014.

Born in Tennessee, Jones and his brother were placed in a Memphis orphanage after the death of their mother in 1945. Jones ran away at age 16 and enlisted in the Army, but reportedly went AWOL after only two days. After spending time traveling around the US, he turned himself in and served a six month jail sentence. Not long after his release, Jones met acting coach and director Frank Corsaro who encouraged him to attend classes at The Actors Studio. Corsaro cast Jones alongside Bette Davis and Margaret Leighton in the original 1961 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' "Night of the Iguana." Jones later landed the leading role in the short-lived ABC series "The Adventures of Jesse James" (1965-66).

Jones moved to the big screen in 1968 and that year had the role for which he is perhaps best-remembered: Max Frost, a rock star who becomes president in the political-musical-satire "Wild in the Streets." After only two more films, Jones disappeared from view, devastated by the shocking murder of actress Sharon Tate, with whom he had been having an affair at the time of her death. Quentin Tarantino supposedly offered the actor the role of Zed in "Pulp Fiction" (1994), but Jones balked at the storyline and refused to appear in the film. He did, however, accept a small role in Larry Bishop's crime comedy "Mad Dog Time" a.k.a. "Trigger Happy" (1996). Christopher Jones died of cancer on January 31, 2014.