Peter Jones

Emmy award-winning filmmaker Peter Jones began his career as a broadcast journalist. A graduate of Stanford University (BA in American Studies, 1978) with a Master's Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University (1981), Jones served as Washington correspondent for KOTV (CBS) in Tulsa, Oklahoma; a news and feature reporter for KVUE (ABC) in Austin, Texas; an anchor for WSLS (NBC) in Roanoke, Virginia; and an assignment editor for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. Jones won numerous honors, including several Outstanding Achievement Awards from United Press International and The Associated Press.In 1987, he formed Peter Jones Productions, originally specializing in documentaries related to the history of the Hollywood film industry. Since then, his Los Angeles-based company has produced more than 120 hours of programming on a variety of subjects.For several years, he produced, wrote and hosted the short-form series, Only In Hollywood, which aired on Showtime, The Movie Channel, The Disney Channel, TNT, AMC and Encore. In 1992, the segments premiered in broadcast syndication as a half-hour magazine-style series. From 1990-96, he produced, directed, wrote and hosted the short-form series, AMC in Hollywood with Peter Jones.In 1994, Peter Jones Productions became a contracted producer for the A&E series, Biography. During a 10-year association in which his company produced 85 profiles, Jones became well known for securing previously unattainable rights without relinquishing editorial control, including those for such subjects as Sam Phillips, Brian Wilson, Charlie Chaplin, Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Jones wrote and directed a 2-hour special on Judy Garland that won a 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series, the first for the network. His 2-hour special, Ozzie and Harriet: Adventures of America's Favorite Family, became the highest-rated documentary in the network's history, earning a 1999 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series. In 2001, his film, Goldwyn, premiered on the critically acclaimed PBS series, American Masters. In 2002 he received the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America for Biography.In 2003, Jones conceived, produced and directed Sunset Junction, a feature-length verite documentary about a Beverly Hills hairdresser who becomes an unlikely father figure to gang members and the neglected children of illegal immigrants. The film had its world premiere at The Los Angeles International Film Festival (AFI FEST) in November 2003.In 2006, Stardust: The Bette Davis Story has its U.S. premiere on Turner Classic Movies, garnering Jones and his team the best reviews in the company's history, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming, and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Nonfiction Special.His latest project, Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, a documentary on the single-family reign of four publishers of the Los Angeles Times newspaper, premiered as a national prime time special on PBS in October 2009, a first for a documentary on Los Angeles. The film won the prestigious Peabody Award. Show less «