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He is an actor and film director. He is well known for his role in the famous film series “Men in Black.” Here are some interesting facts about him.
- Tommy Lee Jones was born on September 15, 1946 in San Saba, Texas, USA.
- He was born to a police officer Lucille Marie and Clyde C. Jones who worked on oil field.
- He had a younger brother born three years later but died in infancy.
- His family is of English descent with Scottish and Irish ancestry. But there is no authenticity for his Native American roots which he claims.
- After his graduation from prestigious school in Dallas, St.Marks Schools of Texas, he went to Harvard on scholarship where he shared his room with future vice president of USA, Al Gore.
- His association with former college mate, Senator Al Gore was evident, when in 2000 Democratic National Convention he officially nominated Al Gore as Democratic presidential candidate.
- He graduated from Harvard University in Bachelor of Arts in English with honors in 1969.
- He played for the Harvard’s undefeated football team of 1968 as offensive guard.
- He was part of famous tied game in the Ivy League game of football where Harvard scored 16 points in the last minute comeback and tied with Yale 29-29.
- He has recounted the memorable moments to the game in the documentary “Harvard beats Yale 29-29.”
- He never took formal acting class, but after college he moved to New York for theatrical career.
- Although he started his career as an actor in 1969, he got his breakthrough in the movie “Love Story” along with Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw. The film was nominated for 1970s Academy Awards with nothing to speak about Tommy Lee Jones acting.
- He featured in “Ripley’s Believe It Not” for appointing an agent and landing a job in Broadway in mere ten days.
- He returned to Broadway in 1971 along with Sid Caesar and Carol Channing in a one act play called “Four on a Garden.”
- Between 1971 and 1975, he was cast in many plays such as ABC’s “One Life to Live” and “Ulysses in Nightgown.” One followed the other and he got to play the lead role in TV movie The “Amazing Howard Hughes.”
- His Texas accent and harsh voice helped him to get, real life public figure and tough character in the film.
- He was married to Kate Lardner since 1971 until their divorce in 1978.
- In the year 1981, he was cast in the movie “Back Roads” with Sally Field who was give the top billing.
- He disliked Sally Fields and they did not get along well during the filming of the movie “Back Roads.”
- He again co-starred with Sally Field in the 2012 movie “Lincoln.”
- He met Kimberlea Cloughley during his filming of “Back Roads,” which subsequently led to his second marriage with her.
- He has two children from his second marriage: Austin Leonard and Victoria.
- True to life, father and son played in the TV movie Yuri Nosenko, KGB.
- He is fluent in both English and Spanish which was evident in the movie “The Three burials of Melquiades Estrada,” fetching him best actor award at Canes Film Festival 2005.
- He used his own 3000 acre ranch for the set of “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”.
- He was nominated for Golden Globe for the best actor category in the movie, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” for the first time.
- Sissy Spacek said about Jones in her autobiography, “I can honestly say he's always the smartest person in the room, Tommy Lee had great instincts about the film. ... He elevated my performance in every way."
- He was arrested for drunken driving and even beaten up for resisting arrest few days before shooting began for the film “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
- He was the first choice for the film “Carpenter’s Escape from New York” and “Savior”. But could not be cast for want of dates and preferences.
- His first directional venture was with the film “The Good Old Boys” in the year 1995, where he first met Ms Dawn Laurel.
- He was married for the third time in 2001 to Dawn Laurel.
- He is a serious polo player and strongly supports polo foundation and invites polo team to play in his ranch.
- Apart from polo he follows NBA and is a big fan of San Antonio Spurs of Texas.
- Along with 12 others he was nominated three times for Academy award best supporting actor’s role.
- In the year 1993 he got Academy award for best supporting actor’s role in the film “The Fugitive”.
- He had told his co-actor Joe Pantoliano that it’s unlikely that someone’s going to win an award for this movie.
- In the movie “The Fugitive” he shares only three scenes in the entire film with Harrison Ford: in the car, the tunnel and in the laundry.
- He received good reviews about his performance in the movie “Natural Born Killers”, where he played as a maximum security prison warden.
- He said that his performance was inspired by the play “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.”
- His role with Will Smith in “Men in Black,” helped Ray-Ban to sell glasses “Predator2” three times the sales.
- He was not impressed with the script of the movie “Men in Black.” Only when Spielberg promised to improve on the first draft he accepted the role.
- About Will Smith he had said once, “Will is more generous than anyone, and he spreads joy. He walks into a studio, walks onto a set, and he makes certain that everybody's happy. He can't help himself.”
- In the sequel “Men in Black 2” Jones’s own daughter appears as a girl in the apartment where they acquire weapons.
- In 2007, he delivered two strong performances in the movies “The Valley Of Ellah,” and “No Country for Old Men.” He was nominated for Academy awards for his performance in the former movie.
- Initially the role in “The Valley of Ellah” was given to Clint Eastwood who turned it down, despite liking it. He proposed his good friend Jones for the role.
- He and Josh Brolin both worked together again in “Men in Black”. Brolin played the younger version of Jones character in the movie.
- He was the top billing actor in the movie “No Country for Old Men.” However he appeared in the least number of scenes than the leading three characters.
- He achieved rare distinction of directing and acting in his own production in the film “The Homesman”. This film went on to be represented in 2014 Cannes film festival.
- He was lauded for his direction of “Homesman” and was compared to greatest Western director John Ford in Antony Lane’s review of the film.
- Two more film of his, “Criminal” and “Mechanic” is in pipe line to be released in 2016.
