Tommy Lee Jones was one Hollywood’s most loved movie stars of the 1990s and 2000s.
A stage and screen actor, his biggest success came relatively later in life after Jones starred in the 1993 film The Fugitive.
It led to one of his most famous roles as Agent K in the hugely popular Men in Black franchise.
Now 77, Jones starred in two films released in 2023, but before he made headlines with an awkward red carpet appearance last year, he had an offset clash with one of his co-stars.
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Tommy Lee Jones was born in Texas on September 15, 1946. His father was a cowboy and oil field worker while his mother owned a beauty shop and worked as a teacher and police officer.
He received a high school scholarship to a prestigious boys’ school in Dallas, where he first showed an interest in acting, appearing in school plays.
After school, Jones was accepted into Harvard, where he majored in English and appeared in college theatre productions.
He also played on the Harvard football team, which won the 1968 Ivy League college season.
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A 2019 article in Harvard’s student newspaper The Harvard Crimson included recollections from other students who said he would often rush straight from the football locker room to rehearsals.
Jones directed and performed in a number of plays while at Harvard, where he lived in the same on-campus accommodation as future US Vice President Al Gore, with whom he remained friends.
After graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts, Jones headed straight to New York to become an actor.
He made his Broadway debut that same year, which was followed by his first film role in the 1970 hit film Love Story, in which he played Harvard student Hank, the roommate of main character Oliver.
Love Story‘s author Erich Segal later said he based much of the character of Oliver on Jones, whom he met while on sabbatical at Harvard when Jones was a student there.
The next decade saw Jones flit between Broadway and TV.
He starred as Dr Mark Toland on the soap opera One Life to Live from 1971 to 1975.
His role as the husband of country singer Loretta Lynn in the 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter brought him a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a comedy or musical.
He appeared mainly on TV for the next decade before he won a role in the 1991 film JFK, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
In the early 90s he appeared in Under Siege, The Client and Natural Born Killers.
But it was his role in the 1993 action thriller The Fugitive, in which he played Deputy US Marshal Samuel Gerard, who is on the hunt for Harrison Ford’s Dr Richard Kimble, that brought superstardom at the age of 47.
It netted him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, which he accepted with a shaved head for a new movie role.
The next decade saw Jones busier than ever. He starred as Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the 1995 film Batman Forever and the 1997 disaster movie Volcano, opposite Anne Heche.
That year also marked his first turn as Agent K in Men in Black, opposite Will Smith. The film brought a new generation of fans.
In the ’90s he starred in US Marshals, played a parole officer hunting down Ashley Judd’s character in 1999’s Double Jeopardy, a marine colonel defence attorney in Rules of Engagement, and an ageing astronaut opposite Clint Eastwood in Space Cowboys.
He was regularly cast as surly, if not gruff, and while many wondered if this was simply typecasting, Jones soon earned a reputation for being difficult to work with and hard to interview.
His Batman Forever co-star Jim Carrey opened up about what happened between the pair during a 2017 appearance on Norm Macdonald Live.
He said during a break from filming he went to have dinner at a restaurant where Jones was also dining.
“The maitre said, ‘Oh, I hear you’re working with Tommy Lee Jones. He’s over in the corner having dinner’,” Carrey recalled.
“So I went over and I said, ‘Hey Tommy, how are you doing?’ and the blood just drained from his face.
“And he got up shaking — he must have been in mid kill me fantasy or something like that. And he went to hug me and he said, ‘I hate you. I really don’t like you.’
“I said, ‘Gee man, what’s the problem?’ and I pulled up a chair, which probably wasn’t smart. And he said, ‘I cannot sanction your buffoonery.'”
Jones started the 2000s with a critically acclaimed role in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which netted him the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award.
He received an Oscar nomination for the 2007 film In the Valley of Elah, and played a Texas sheriff hunting an assassin in the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men.
His performance in the 2010 Ben Affleck film The Company Men drew praise. The next year he appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger and followed this up with a third turn as Agent K in Men in Black 3 before appearing in Hope Springs, Lincoln and Jason Bourne.
Jones appeared in two films released in 2023.
A red carpet appearance at the December 2023 film premiere of his most recent film, Finestkind, alarmed fans when a frail-looking Jones asked young co-star Jenna Ortega, “Did we have any scenes together?”
She replied, “Yes, we have one,” before he asked, “Have you seen the film?”
Jones has been married three times. His first marriage was in the 70s to Kate Lardner.
His second marriage to Kimberlea Cloughley resulted in two children, Austin, who was born in 1982, and Victoria, who arrived in 1991.
Jones met third wife Dawn Laurel on the set of the 1995 film The Good Old Boys, while he was still married to Cloughley.
Laurel was the film’s assistant camera operator.
The two married in 2001 and live together on Jones’ cattle ranch in Texas.
Jones, a keen polo player who is thought to have a net worth of about $150 million, also owns a large property in Argentina.
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