L.Q. Jones

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Birthday:

19 August 1927, Beaumont, Texas, USA

Birth Name:

Justice Ellis McQueen Jr.

Height:

183 cm

Tall, sandy haired, mustachioed actor from Texas born Justus McQueen, who adopted the name of the character he portrayed in his first film, Battle Cry (1955). Jones, with his craggy, gaunt looks, first appeared in minor character roles in plenty of WWII films including The Young Lions (1958), The Naked and the Dead (1958), Hell Is for Heroes (1962) and Battle of the Coral Sea (1959). However, 1962 saw him team up with maverick director Sam Peckinpah for the first of Jones' five appearances in his films. Ride the High Country (1962) saw Jones play one of the lowlife Hammond brothers. Next he appeared alongside Charlton Heston in Major Dundee (1965), then Peckinpah cast him, along with his real-life friend Strother Martin, as one of the scummy, murderous bounty hunters in The Wild Bunch (1969). Such was the chemistry between Jones and Martin that Peckinpah teamed them again the following year in The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and Jones' final appearance in a Peckinpah film was in another western, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). Two years later Jones directed the cult post-apocalyptic film A Boy and His Dog (1975) starring a young Don Johnson. He has continued to work in Hollywood, and as the lines on his craggy face have deepened, he turns up more frequently as crusty old westerners, especially in multiple TV guest spots. He turned in an interesting performance as a seemingly good ol' boy Nevada cowboy who was actually a powerful behind-the-scenes player in state politics who leaned on Robert De Niro's Las Vegas mob gambler in Martin Scorsese's violent and powerful Casino (1995). Show less «

[on Sam Peckinpah] There are three or four or five directors who are sheer genius in what they do, and Sam is certainly one of those. But he...Show more »

[on Sam Peckinpah] There are three or four or five directors who are sheer genius in what they do, and Sam is certainly one of those. But he also relies a great deal on the people around him. And as much as I think Sam's a genius, I also think he's a fucking idiot. But then, it takes a genius to fuck up in the idiotic ways he does. Everybody hates Sam; everybody loves Sam. Sam intentionally makes everybody on the set uncertain in order to get what he wants. He'll figure which way you're headed and then keep at you until he's got you thinking 180 degrees from where you were. Then, just when you think you've got it licked, he'll start in on you and force you another 180 degrees so you're back where you started only you can't recognize it. He wants you off balance because that's how he sees the world--nothing is certain. Show less «

[on Martin Scorsese] Probably he . . . is one of maybe three directors I've worked with who are really great, really great. He's a superb di...Show more »

[on Martin Scorsese] Probably he . . . is one of maybe three directors I've worked with who are really great, really great. He's a superb director and he works kind of strangely. Show less «

[on why he's successful at playing heavies] Different parts call for different heavies. I have a certain presence. I play against that prese...Show more »

[on why he's successful at playing heavies] Different parts call for different heavies. I have a certain presence. I play against that presence a lot of times. One school of heavy that kind of came in vogue, I use it, Warren Oates used it for a while, Jack Elam did with his own twist, and that's of a heavy that is not crazy or deranged--although we play those, of course--but rather someone who is a heavy because he enjoys being a heavy. I've done 25, 30, 50 different types of heavies, a shade here, a shade there . . . it's really hard to say what they're looking for when they pick me. A lot of times your heavy is not that well presented in the script. Most times he's too one-sided. So we look for things to bring to being a heavy: a certain softness; a vulnerability that makes him human; a quiet moment when he's a screamer most of the time; a look; the way he dresses; the way he walks into a room. There are many things that contribute to why a casting director will choose me over someone else . . . or someone else over me. Show less «