Bio: British character actor Freddie Jones came to the acting profession after ten years of working as a laboratory assistant and acting in amateur theater on the side. To kick off his mid-life career change, Jones attended Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent, England, on a scholarship. He then worked in repertory theater, later joining up with the Royal Shakespeare Company and gaining recognition as an actor of exceptional cleverness, intelligence and perception.His theatrical film debut came in 1967 in Peter Brook's critically acclaimed, Marat/Sade (1967). Two years later, Jones made his mark on the acting world playing "Claudius" in the six-part television miniseries, The Caesars (1968). Based on this performance, he was named "The World's Best Television Actor of the Year" at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 1969. Also, around this time, Jones gave one of his most touching film performances, that of the "monster" in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), in which he displayed pathos reminiscent of Boris Karloff's monster.Critical acclaim led him into more prominent roles in television, e.g., The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976), Children of the Stones (1977), and Pennies from Heaven (1978), as well as in film, e.g., The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), Antony and Cleopatra (1972), All Creatures Great and Small (1975) and Zulu Dawn (1979). He achieved international recognition as a film actor after appearing in such Hollywood films as Clint Eastwood's Firefox (1982) and David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), Dune (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990).Arguably one of his most endearing roles was the frequently drunk reporter "Orlando" in Federico Fellini's The Ship Sails On (1983). His theatrical acting also went well as he was well suited for literary dramas, e.g., Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Nicholas Nickleby (1977), Silas Marner (1985), Adam Bede (1992), David Copperfield (2000) and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).
Tivia: He and Dudley Sutton are the only actors to appear in both the ITV cult classic series My Partner the Ghost (1969) and its BBC remake Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (2000).Father of Toby Jones (actor), Rupert Jones (director), and Casper Jones (actor).Played Fortunato in the 1995 version of The Cask of Amontillado (1995). His son, actor Toby Jones, played the antagonist role of Montresor in the 2014 production The Cask of Amontillado (2014).Opened the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, near Stoke-on-Trent where he was born.Appeared in three David Lynch movies: The Elephant Man (1980), Dune (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990).He was the son of Ida Elizabeth (Goodwin), a clerk and pub pianist, and Charles Edward Jones, a porcelain thrower. Before becoming an actor, Jones had a career similar to that of his father, working in a ceramics factory as a laboratory assistant, a job at which he was very unhappy, later telling interviewers that it came close to making him clinically insane.Among the actors thought suitable for the role of Solon in Doctor Who: Brain of Morbius. Philip Madoc was cast instead.An Associate Member of RADA, Jones trained at Rose Bruford Drama School, Sidcup, Kent, not becoming a professional actor until his 30s.Considered for the major guest roles of Dastari and Shockeye in Doctor Who: The Two Doctors.Considered for the cameo role of Peter Walmsley in Doctor Who: Battlefield.Considered for roles of Dr. Hans Fallada, Dr. Armstrong, Dr. Bukovsky and Sir Percy Heseltine in Lifeforce (1985).He appeared in two different productions of Stella Gibbons' novel Cold Comfort Farm. In Cold Comfort Farm (1968) he played Urk Starkadder, and in Cold Comfort Farm (1995) he played Adam Lambsbreath.