Trivia

Never took an acting class.

Speaks Spanish fluently.

Plays polo and raises polo ponies. His team won the U.S. Polo Association's Western Challenge Cup in 1993. Invites Harvard University's best polo players to his ranch to practice each fall.

He and Al Gore were roommates while the two were students at Harvard University. The two remain close friends.

Part-time cattle rancher, owns 3,000-acre ranch near San Antonio, Texas.

Owns the movie rights to Cormac McCarthy's controversial novel "Blood Meridian," which many people consider unfilmable.

He is a first cousin of Boxcar Willie, a famous country singer.

Writes most of his own most memorable lines in films. In The Fugitive (1993): When Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) informs Marshal Gerard, "I didn't kill my wife," Gerard replies, "I don't care!"; in Under Siege (1992): William Strannix's speech after he loses his mind -- "Saturday morning cartoons ... This little piggy..."; in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978): John Neville's revealing speech at the movie's ending.

Ten days after graduating from Harvard, he landed his first role in the Broadway production of "A Patriot for Me" (with Maximilian Schell), which closed after 49 performances. He got his agent after giving a letter of introduction to actress Jane Alexander. His story of how he found an agent and a Broadway job so quickly was written about in an issue of "Ripley's Believe It or Not".

Real-life son Austin Leonard Jones played his son, Tommy, in Double Image (1986).

Was the studio's original (and preferred) choice to play Snake Plissken in John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981). The studio was reluctant to cast Kurt Russell, who ultimately got the role, because of his previous work.

Good friends with Al Gore, Willie Nelson, Gary Busey, Oliver Stone, Robert Duvall, and Will Smith.

He has appeared in six films that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Love Story (1970), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), JFK (1991), The Fugitive (1993), No Country for Old Men (2007) and Lincoln (2012). No Country for Old Men won in the category.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on November 30, 1994.

An eighth-generation Texan, he has English as well as some Scots-Irish/Northern Irish and Scottish ancestry. He has also stated that he has Cherokee Native American roots, but it is not clear if this ancestry has been documented (all of his grandparents and great-grandparents were listed as "White" on United States censuses).

Has been friends with actor Tom Berenger since they were both on One Life to Live (1968).

Is an avid polo player. He even bought a house in a polo country club in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The longest he has gone without an Academy Award nomination is 14 years, between The Fugitive (1993) and In the Valley of Elah (2007).

Born the same date as filmmaker and good friend Oliver Stone.

Father's name was Clyde C. Jones -- he did not have a middle name, just an initial.

According to author Erich Segal, Jones and his Harvard roommate, Al Gore, were the models for the character Oliver Barrett IV in Love Story (1970).

Jones was also a resident of Midland, Texas, and attended the same high school as the former First Lady Laura Bush.

Father, with Kimberlea Cloughley, of Austin Leonard Jones (born November 9, 1982) and Victoria Jones (born September 3, 1991).

Became friends with Al Gore when they were roommates at Harvard University. Jones was asked to host the Nobel Peace Prize concert for Gore, but had to withdraw for personal reasons.

Had a younger brother, born three years after the actor, who died in infancy.

Accepted the Texas Legend Award during the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards ceremony held on March 12, 2015, in Austin, Texas.

An animated caricature of him appeared in The Star System Syndrome (1999) (episode 12 of the second season of that animated series adaptation of Men in Black (1997)), alongside an animated caricature of his Men in Black (1997) co-star Will Smith, set against a scene parodying another hit film starring Smith, Independence Day (1996).

He was originally cast as Luke Hobbs in Fast Five (2011), but the role was given to Dwayne Johnson.

He is frequently seen as "The Alien" in TV commercials for Boss Coffee in Japan. He's been in the adverts since 2006, and is sometimes seen looking out from coffee vending machines across the country.

Injured after falling from horse during polo match. (October 30, 1998)

At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, he presented the nominating speech for Al Gore as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States.

Played Howard Hughes in The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977) and later appeared in Batman Forever (1995), which was filmed inside the hangar of Hughes's Spruce Goose.

Is an avid fan of the San Antonio Spurs.

Was set to star in Everybody's All-American (1988) in 1982, but the studio backed out partly because they did not believe that Jones was leading man material. Jones has said that he found it all amusing. Dennis Quaid got the part when Taylor Hackford took over the project.

He has worked with eight directors who have won a Best Director Oscar: Oliver Stone, Tony Richardson, William Friedkin, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen and Steven Spielberg.

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) and No Country for Old Men (2007).

In Batman Forever (1995), his character Harvey Two-Face flips a coin to see if his victims should live or die. Twelve years later, he played a sheriff in No Country for Old Men (2007) pursuing an assassin who kills random victims by asking them to call a coin toss.

Has worked twice with actresses who have played Katharine Hepburn. In The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), he played Howard Hughes opposite Tovah Feldshuh as Hepburn. In The Missing (2003), his daughter is played by Cate Blanchett, who played Hepburn in The Aviator (2004), another biopic about Hughes.

Is the only Texan to have played fellow Texan Howard Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator (2004)), Jason Robards (Melvin and Howard (1980)), Terry O'Quinn (The Rocketeer (1991)), and Warren Beatty (Rules Don't Apply (2016)) were born in California, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia, respectively.

First of three actors whose Oscar-winning roles were inspired by the works of Victor Hugo. His character Lt. Gerard in The Fugitive (1993) was modeled after Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, Anne Hathaway won her Oscar for playing Fantine in Les Misérables (2012), and Heath Ledger won his Oscar for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), inspired by the character Gwynplaine from The Man Who Laughs (1928). Jones and Hathaway also have both had roles in the Batman film series: Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), while Jones appeared in Batman Forever (1995) as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, a character also appearing in The Dark Knight (2008).

Mother was Lucille Marie Scott.

He has a ranch in Texas where breeds polo ponies and raises cattle.

First house manager at the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, Massachusetts, starting in 1969.

His first ex-wife, Kate Lardner, is Ring Lardner's granddaughter.

Was set to star in Savior (1998), but had to back out due to other commitments.

He has a son, Austin Leonard who was born in 1983.