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Simon Jones (actor)

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Simon Jones (born 27 July 1950) is an English actor. He is best known for originating the role of Arthur Dent, protagonist of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He also played the role of Donald Shellhammer in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), appeared in Brideshead Revisited as Lord Brideshead, and as King George V in the film Downton Abbey.

Early lifeEdit

Jones was born 27 July 1950,<ref name="tomato">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Charlton Park, Wiltshire, England.<ref name="tv"/> When young, his family moved to Broad Town near Wootton Bassett (before it was Royal), travelling often to visit elderly aunts in Salisbury.<ref name="cars">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Jones studied at King's College, Taunton, before going up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, at age 25.<ref name="cars"/>

CareerEdit

Jones appeared in various television series, including Brideshead Revisited,<ref name="broadway">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in which he played the Earl of Brideshead, or 'Bridey', heir to the Marquess of Marchmain,<ref name="tv">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the second series of Blackadder (1986),<ref name="comedy"/> playing Sir Walter Raleigh in the episode "Potato".<ref name="comedy"/> His films have included Club Paradise (1986),<ref name="tv"/> Privates on Parade (1982),<ref name="tv"/> Miracle on 34th Street<ref name="tv"/> and The Devil's Own (1997).<ref name="tomato"/>

Jones was studying at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Footlights and met Douglas Adams.<ref name="tomato"/> This led to him being cast in Out of the Trees and later The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.<ref name="tomato"/> The latter project, a radio broadcast from 1978, would be the first of Jones's several portrayals of Arthur Dent; Adams claimed to Jones that he wrote the part of Dent with him in mind.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Monty Python's The Meaning of Life,<ref name="tomato"/> Jones had a minor role as one of the guests at the dinner party which is interrupted by the Grim Reaper. He has also appeared in some of the solo film projects of the members of Monty Python: Privates on Parade (with John Cleese),<ref name="tv"/> American Friends (1991) with Michael Palin.<ref name="comedy"/> He appeared in the Terry Gilliam film Brazil (1985) alongside Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro,<ref name="tv"/> also worked alongside Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys (1995).<ref name="tomato"/>

Jones has appeared in many Broadway plays, including The Real Thing (1985),<ref name="theatre">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as Max, Benefactors (1985),<ref name="theatre"/> as Colin, Getting Married (1991),<ref name="broadway"/> as Reginald Bridgenorth, Private Lives (1992),<ref name="theatre"/> as Elyot Chase, The Real Inspector Hound,<ref name="theatre"/> (as Moon) and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet (as Hamlet - which played together in 1992),<ref name="broadway"/> The School for Scandal (1995),<ref name="theatre"/> as Joseph Surface, Ring Round the Moon (1999),<ref name="broadway"/> as Romainville and as Perry Lascoe in Waiting in the Wings (1999).<ref name="theatre"/>

In 2009, Jones appeared in Blithe Spirit,<ref name="tomato"/> as Dr. Bradman, supported by Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett; and in 2018 he portrayed John Rich, in Farinelli and the King co-starring Mark Rylance.<ref name="broadway"/> Off-Broadway he has a long list of credits, and was nominated for the 1990 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his role in Privates on Parade.<ref name="theatre"/>

Jones is also a voice actor and audiobook narrator, with more than 70 titles to his credit. Among them are: <ref name="theatre"/><ref name="broadway"/>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2003, Jones reprised his role as Arthur Dent in a new radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.<ref name="theatre"/> In the same year he was involved in the filming of the film version of the first novel, making a brief cameo appearance in the role of the holographic Magrathean answering machine/automated defence system.<ref name="theatre"/>

In 2009, Jones was heard as master detective Sexton Blake on BBC Radio 2 in the six-part series, The Adventures of Sexton Blake!.<ref name="comedy">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2012 and 2013, he returned to the UK, to star in a national stage tour of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Live!<ref name="broadway"/>

The tour of Blithe Spirit, starring Angela Lansbury, then went to London's West End in early 2014.<ref name="broadway"/> This was followed by BBC Radio appearances in Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett's Good Omens, directed by Dirk Maggs, and Doctor Who with Tom Baker.<ref name="comedy"/>

In 2018, Jones was once again playing Arthur Dent when he recorded the final radio series, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – the Hexagonal Phase directed by Dirk Maggs for BBC Radio 4.<ref name="comedy"/>

In August 2018, it was announced that Jones would be among the new cast to join the original actors in the Downton Abbey film, which started principal photography at about the same time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In addition to his work as an actor, Jones is also a co-artistic director at New York Off-Broadway company the Actors' Company Theatre (TACT).<ref name="broadway"/>

Personal lifeEdit

Jones and his son Tim were hit by a car on 8 October 2010; though they suffered only bruises, he had to withdraw from The Actors Company Theatre's production of Václav Havel's Memorandum.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 20 December 2019 his wife, Nancy Lewis, died in Manhattan of leukaemia aged 76.<ref name="nancy">Template:Cite news</ref>

Partial filmographyEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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