As a ninety-eight-pound seventh grader he secured a scholarship to attend St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas and from there a scholarship to attend Harvard. He was the starting right guard for the football team and knew theatrical Shakespeare of the stage. His mother divorced after his father had left to work in Libya on an oilrig and she remarried and later divorced.
This may be the insight behind that sensual smile, rough exterior and unsettling stare found in almost all Jones' movie characters. After Harvard he was stage bound in New York playing in such off-Broadway shows as the prison drama Fortune and Men's Eyes and A Patriot for Me. He soon abandoned his dream of returning to his home state to play for the Dallas Cowboys.
His first movie break was staring as Ryan O'Neal's Harvard roommate in the tear jerking classic Love Story (1970). From here he became a regular as Dr. Mark Toland on ABC's daytime drama One Life To Live.
In 1975 Jones relocated to California where he found movie lights in the pilot episode of Charlie's Angels. A feature role followed, Jackson County Jail (1976), where he portrayed an escaped convict on the run from federal marshals. In Rolling Thunder (1977), Jones played a Vietnam Vet who returns home seeking revenge after finding his wife and son was murdered.
In the later part of the 70s Jones' career began to take off with several major roles. The first was the eccentric Hollywood billionaire Howard Hughes in The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), Harold Robbin's novel/movie The Betsy (1978), the punk-chic thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and then as Loretta Lynn's husband/manager Mooney in The Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). In 1981 he teamed up with Sally Field for the movie Back Roads. A swashbuckler titled Nate and Hayes (1983) where he was a pirate captain.
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