LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dean Jones, whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s favorite young actor for such lighthearted films as “That Darn Cat!” and “The Love Bug,” has died of complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 84.
He died Monday in Los Angeles, Jones’ publicist Richard Hoffman said Wednesday.
Jones’ long association with The Walt Disney Co. began after he received an unexpected call from Walt Disney himself, who praised his work on the TV show “Ensign O’Toole,” noting it had “some good closing sequences.” Jones, himself a former Navy man, played the title role in the 1962 sitcom.
Jones puzzled over Disney’s remark until it occurred to him that “Ensign O’Toole” preceded Disney’s own Sunday night show on NBC, and he realized Disney probably only watched each episode’s ending.
Two years later, Jones heard from Disney again, calling this time to offer him a role in “That Darn Cat!” opposite ingénue Hayley Mills. His FBI agent Zeke Kelso follows a crime-solving cat that leads him to a pair of bank robbers.
Released in 1965, it would the first of 10 Disney films Jones would make, most of them in the supernatural vein.
“I see something in them that is pure form. Just entertainment. No preaching,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re always looking for social significance but maybe people just like to be entertained.”
“The Love Bug” (1969) was the most successful of the genre, with Jones playing a struggling race-driver who acquires a Volkswagen that wins races for him. The Bug, named Herbie, has hidden human traits, and when it feels unappreciated it disappears. Jones must rescue Herbie from the hands of his nefarious rival and issue the car an apology before it wins the big race for him.
After “The Love Bug,” Jones returned to the stage, winning the lead role of Robert in “Company,” Stephen Sondheim’s nowclassic musical about marital angst, Manhattan-style. He withdrew from the 1970 production after a short time, citing family problems, but he is heard on the Grammy-winning Broadway cast album.
He had actually started his career as a singer before going on to appear in a string of mostly forgettable films throughout the 1950s. A notable exception was 1957’s “Jailhouse Rock,” one of Elvis Presley’s bestremembered vehicles, in which Jones had a small role as a disc jockey.
In 1960, Jones made his Broadway debut with Jane Fonda in “There Was a Little Girl,” playing Fonda’s boyfriend in a short-lived drama about the rape of a young woman.
He had better luck on Broadway later in 1960, when he appeared in the hit comedy “Under the Yum Yum Tree.” Sparring with Gig Young, who played a comically wolfish character, Jones had “the right blend of sturdiness and lightness,” The New York Times wrote.
He returned to Hollywood to make the film version of “Under the Yum Yum Tree” and to star in television’s “Ensign O’Toole” from 1962 to 1964.
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