Jeffrey Duncan Jones (born September 28, 1946) is an American actor best known for his roles as Emperor Joseph II in Amadeus, Edward R. Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Charles Deetz in Beetlejuice. Jones' career started in Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, advanced to London and Broadway, before leading to a series of character acting roles in film and television, which often capitalized on Jones' deadpan delivery of characters in unusual situations to comic effect.

Biography

Jones was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Ruth (née Schooley) and Douglas Bennett Jones. His mother was an art historian, who urged him towards a career in acting. His father died during Jones' childhood.

One interviewer found Jones to value anonymity and the enjoyment of everyday tasks, like home repairs, and found him to be uninterested in status symbols and fan adulation. In that 1989 interview, Jones pointed out that greater public recognition actually makes it more difficult to transition between roles and allow the character to come to the fore and the actor to recede from view.

Jones has one son, actor Julian Coutts, whose mother was Lloy Coutts (1941–2008). Coutts was a respected Canadian voice coach. She and Jones met in Stratford, Ontario.

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