American actor who achieved some success as a child and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns and in television. The son of a Texas newspaper editor, Jones was a prodigious horseman from infancy, billed at the age of four as the World's Youngest Trick Rider and Trick Roper. At the age of six, he was hired to perform riding and lariat tricks in the rodeo owned by western star Hoot Gibson. Gibson convinced young Jones and his parents that there was a place for him in Hollywood, and the boy and his mother went west. Gibson arranged for some small parts for the boy, whose good looks, energy, and pleasant voice quickly landed him more and bigger parts, both in low-budget Westerns and in more substantial productions. In 1940, he had one of his most prominent (although invisible) roles, as the voice of Pinocchio (1940) in Walt Disney's animated film of the same name. Jones attended Hollywood High School and, at 15, took over the role of Henry Aldrich on the hit radio show "The Aldrich Family." He learned carpentry and augmented his income with jobs in that field. He served in the Army in Alaska during the final months of World War II. Gene Autry, who before the war had cast Jones in several Westerns, put him back to work in films and particularly in television, on programs produced by Autry's company. Now billed as Dick Jones, the handsome young man starred as Dick West, sidekick to the Western hero known as The Range Rider (1951), in a TV series that ran for 76 episodes in 1951 (and for decades in syndication). Then Autry gave Jones his own series, Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955), which ran for 40 episodes. Jones continued working in films throughout the 1950s, then retired and entered the business world. Date of Death: 7 July 2014, Northridge, Los Angeles, California
Movie | The Making of 'Pinocchio': No Strings Attached | Himself | 2009-03-10 |
Movie | A Wish Came True: The Making of 'Pinocchio' | Himself | 2000-12-22 |
Movie | It All Started with a Mouse: The Disney Story | Self | 1989-10-14 |
Movie | Requiem for a Gunfighter | Cliff Fletcher | 1965-06-30 |
Movie | The Devil's Bedroom | Norm | 1964-09-01 |
Movie | The Night Rider | Billy Joe | 1962-01-01 |
Movie | Shadow of the Boomerang | Bob Prince | 1961-08-07 |
Movie | The Wild Dakotas | Mike McGeehee | 1956-02-28 |
Series | Buffalo Bill Jr. | Buffalo Bill Jr. | 1955-03-01 |
Movie | Attila | 1954-12-27 | |
Movie | The Bamboo Prison | Jackie | 1954-06-15 |
Movie | Last of the Pony Riders | Johnny Blair | 1953-11-03 |
Movie | Wagon Team | Dave Weldon, aka The Apache Kid (as Dick Jones) | 1952-09-29 |
Movie | The Old West | Pinto | 1952-09-29 |
Series | The Range Rider | 1951-04-05 | |
Movie | Fort Worth | Luther Wicks (as Dick Jones) | 1951-07-14 |
Movie | Military Academy with That Tenth Avenue Gang | Richard Reilly (uncredited) | 1950-04-27 |
Movie | Sands of Iwo Jima | Scared Marine (uncredited) | 1950-01-01 |
Series | The Gene Autry Show | 1950-07-23 | |
Movie | Rocky Mountain | Jim 'Buck' Wheat | 1950-11-11 |
Movie | Redwood Forest Trail | Mighty Mite | 1950-09-18 |
Movie | Sons of New Mexico | Randy Pryor | 1949-12-20 |
Movie | The Strawberry Roan | Joe Bailey | 1948-08-01 |
Movie | The Adventures of Mark Twain | Young Samuel Clemens | 1944-07-20 |
Movie | Mountain Rhythm | Darwood Gates Alton | 1943-01-08 |
Movie | The Outlaw | Boy (uncredited) | 1943-02-05 |
Movie | The Vanishing Virginian | Robert Yancey, Jr. | 1942-02-01 |
Movie | Adventure in Washington | Abbott | 1941-05-29 |
Movie | Virginia City | Cobby | 1940-03-23 |
Movie | Maryland | Lee Danfield, Age 12 | 1940-07-19 |
Movie | Pinocchio | Pinocchio / Alexander (voice) (uncredited) | 1940-02-23 |
Movie | Knute Rockne All American | Boy Captain (uncredited) | 1940-10-05 |
Movie | The Howards of Virginia | Matt Howard at 12 | 1940-09-19 |
Movie | Brigham Young | Henry Kent | 1940-09-27 |
Movie | The Man Who Dared | Bill Carter | 1939-06-03 |
Movie | Sergeant Madden | Dennis Madden, as a boy | 1939-03-24 |
Movie | Woman Doctor | Johnny | 1939-02-06 |
Movie | Nancy Drew... Reporter | Killer Parkins | 1939-02-18 |
Movie | Young Mr. Lincoln | Adam Clay as a Boy (uncredited) | 1939-06-09 |
Movie | On Borrowed Time | Boy in Tree (uncredited) | 1939-07-07 |
Movie | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Richard Jones (uncredited) | 1939-10-19 |
Movie | Destry Rides Again | Claggett Boy | 1939-11-30 |
Movie | Sky Patrol | Bobby Landis | 1939-09-11 |
Movie | Border Wolves | Jimmie Benton | 1938-02-25 |
Movie | The Kid Comes Back | Bobby Doyle | 1938-02-12 |
Movie | The Devil's Party | Young Joe | 1938-06-02 |
Movie | The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok | Buddy | 1938-06-30 |
Movie | The Frontiersmen | Artie Peters | 1938-12-16 |
Movie | Girls on Probation | Magazine Newsboy | 1938-10-22 |
Movie | A Man to Remember | Dick Abbott (as a boy) | 1938-10-14 |
Movie | Land Beyond the Law | Bobby Skinner (uncredited) | 1937-03-13 |
Movie | Blake of Scotland Yard | Bobby Mason | 1937-01-30 |
Movie | Blake of Scotland Yard | Bobby Mason | 1937-01-30 |
Movie | Smoke Tree Range | Teddy Page | 1937-06-05 |
Movie | Black Legion | Buddy Taylor | 1937-01-30 |
Movie | Ready, Willing and Able | Junior | 1937-03-06 |
Movie | Flying Fists | Dickie Martin | 1937-07-01 |
Movie | Hollywood Round-Up | Dickie Stevens | 1937-11-06 |
Movie | Love Is on the Air | Bill - Mouse's Friend | 1937-10-02 |
Movie | The Pigskin Palooka | Spike (as Our Gang) | 1937-10-23 |
Movie | Renfrew of the Royal Mounted | Tommy MacDonald | 1937-09-29 |
Movie | Stella Dallas | Lee Morrison | 1937-08-06 |
Movie | Sutter's Gold | 2nd Newsboy | 1936-03-01 |
Movie | Gasoloons | Wilbur | 1936-01-03 |
Movie | The Adventures of Frank Merriwell | Jimmy McLaw | 1936-01-13 |
Movie | 36 Hours to Kill | Little Boy Selling The Garden Beautiful | 1936-07-24 |
Movie | Love Begins at Twenty | Boy on Streetcar | 1936-08-22 |
Movie | Daniel Boone | Master Jerry Randolph | 1936-10-16 |
Movie | Wild Horse Round-Up | Dickie Williams | 1936-11-20 |
Movie | Who's Looney Now | Sonny Brown | 1936-08-23 |
Movie | The Call of the Savage | Jan Trevor as a Boy | 1935-04-14 |
Movie | Queen of the Jungle | David Worth as a child | 1935-04-12 |
Movie | The Hawk | Dickie Thomas | 1935-05-13 |
Movie | O'Shaughnessy's Boy | Boy with Sling Shot at Parade | 1935-09-27 |
Movie | Westward Ho | Jim Wyatt as a Child | 1935-08-19 |
Movie | Moonlight on the Prairie | Dickie Roberts | 1935-11-02 |
Movie | Little Men | Dolly | 1934-01-01 |
Movie | Babes in Toyland | Schoolboy (uncredited) | 1934-12-14 |