Doug Jones (actor)

Doug Jones
Jones at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	(1960-05-24) May 24, 1960 (age 53) Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Website
www.thedougjonesexperience.com

Doug Jones (born May 24, 1960) is an American former contortionist and actor best known to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fans for his various roles playing non-human characters, often in heavy makeup, in films and television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pan's Labyrinth and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.^[1]

Early life[edit]

Jones is from Indianapolis, Indiana. After attending Bishop Chatard High School, he attended Ball State University,^[1] where he parlayed his background as a mime into portraying the school mascot "Charlie Cardinal", and from which he graduated in 1982.^[2]

Career[edit]

Jones has worked as a contortionist. "You’d be surprised how many times that comes into play in commercials. They’ll want somebody to hold a box of Tide funny or something. I once squished into a box for a commercial for relaxed fit jeans".^[3]

Although known mostly for his work under prosthetic makeup, such as the zombie Billy Butcherson in the Disney Halloween film Hocus Pocus, or the lead Spy Morlock in the 2002 remake of the 1960 film The Time Machine, he has also performed without prosthetics in such films as Adaptation, Mystery Men and Batman Returns, and indie projects such as Stefan Haves' Stalled, AntiKaiser Productions' Three Lives, Phil Donlon's A Series of Small Things and as Cesare in David Fisher's 2005 remake of the 1920 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He performed as Abe Sapien in Hellboy, although the voice was performed by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce. Explaining the challenge of working so often in rubber suits and prosthetics, he notes, "I have to make that a part of my being and my physicality and again, acting is a full body experience and that's a part of it when you're doing a costumed character."^[4]

Jones at the June 2008 Big Apple Convention in Manhattan.

In 2005, he renewed his association with Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, starring as the Faun in del Toro's multi-Oscar-winning Spanish language fantasy/horror project El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth). He also has a secondary role in the film as 'The Pale Man', a gruesome creature with a penchant for eating children. Working once more under heavy prosthetics in both roles, he was also required to learn large amounts of dialogue in Spanish, though his voice was ultimately re-dubbed.^[5]

The year also brought success for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the film receiving three awards at the Screamfest Horror Festival in Los Angeles, including the Audience Choice Award.^[6] In 2006 Jones appeared in the feature films The Benchwarmers and Lady in the Water, and reprised his role as Abe Sapien by voicing the character in the new Hellboy Animated television project, recording two 75-minute animated films.

In February 2007, Jones' likeness was used for Nvidia's "Human Head" tech demo.^[7]

In June 2007 Jones appeared in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as the Silver Surfer (though Laurence Fishburne portrayed the character's voice). He reprised his role as Abe Sapien in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, once more under the direction of Guillermo del Toro, for which he played both the voice and body performance. He also played two other roles in the film: the Angel of Death and The Chamberlain, both under heavy prosthetics. In 2009, del Toro announced on BBC Radio that Jones would be playing the monster in his upcoming version of Frankenstein.^[8]

Jones starred as himself in Sockbaby 4, the fourth installment of the Internet martial arts comedy series Sockbaby.^[9]

Jones appeared in the French-language film Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), written and directed by French comic-book author Joann Sfar and produced by Universal Europe. Jones played La Gueule ("The Mug"), the grotesque fantasy muse and malicious doppelganger that teases, guides and accompanies Serge Gainsbourg throughout his life. He worked under prosthetics designed and created by the Oscar-winning Spanish FX shop DDT Efectos Especiales, with whom he had already worked on Pan's Labyrinth : the FX technicians requested specifically that Jones be given the role of the Mug creature, due to his ability to perform with heavy prosthetics and elaborate special effects. As in Pan's Labyrinth, Jones performed his lines phonetically, this time speaking in French : his voice was redubbed by Éric Elmosnino, who also played Gainsbourg. Director Joann Sfar liked Jones' speech spattern so much that he asked Elmosnino to mimic it when he performed the creature's lines. The film was released in France on January 20, 2010.^[10][11][12]

In January 2010 Jones signed a book deal with Medallion Press to model a non-fiction comedic coffee table book called Mime Very Own Book, co-written by Adam Mock and Scott Allen Perry, and photographed by Eric Curtis. The book is due for publication in December 2011.^[13]

Jones plays Dr. Henry Vataber in the web series, Universal Dead.^[14] In late June 2010 it was announced that Universal Dead will be made into a feature film.^[15]

Jones appeared in the independent film, The Candy Shop, a "modern fairy tale" shedding light upon child sex trafficking created by the Georgia film studio, Whitestone Pictures.^[16]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

Web[edit]

Video game[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• The Doug Jones Experience - Official website
• Doug Jones at the Internet Movie Database