Dean Carroll Jones (January 25, 1931 – September 1, 2015) was an American actor. Jones was best known for his light-hearted leading roles in several Walt Disney movies between 1965 and 1977, most notably The Love Bug. Jones also originated the role of Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company.
Dean Carroll Jones was born in Decatur, Alabama, to Andrew Guy Jones, a traveling construction worker, and Nolia Elizabeth White Jones. As a student at Decatur's Riverside High School, Jones had his own local radio show, Dean Jones Sings. Jones served in the United States Navy during the Korean War, and after his discharge worked at the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. Jones attended Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, as a member of its Class of 1953, but did not graduate. The university, however, awarded him an honorary degree in 2002, and he spoke at the ceremony for the dedication of Asbury's Andrew S. Miller Center for Communications Arts on March 4, 2011. After appearing in minor film and television roles, Jones made his Broadway debut (along with Jane Fonda) in the 1960 play There Was a Little Girl. He stepped into the role in Boston, Massachusetts, on only one day's notice.[4] In 1960 he also played Dave Manning in the Broadway comedy Under the Yum-Yum Tree, a role which he repeated in the 1963 movie version starring Jack Lemmon. After achieving success in film and television, Jones was set to return to Broadway as the star of Stephen Sondheim's new musical Company. Shortly after opening night, Jones withdrew from the show, due to stress that he was undergoing from ongoing divorce proceedings. Director Harold Prince agreed to replace him with Larry Kert if Jones would open the show and record the cast album. Jones agreed, and his performance is preserved on the original cast album (although it was Larry Kert who received the Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical). In 1986, Jones, by then having become a Christian, starred in Into the Light, a musical about scientists and the Shroud of Turin, which closed four days after it opened. He had far more success touring in the one-man show St. John in Exile as the last surviving Apostle of Jesus Christ, reminiscing about his life while imprisoned on the Greek island of Patmos. A performance was filmed in 1986. He made one more Broadway appearance, in 1993, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, in a special two-day concert staging of Company featuring most of the original Broadway cast. Jones started his film career by signing a contract at MGM, beginning with a small role as a soldier in Somebody Up There Likes Me and he later played disc jockey Teddy Talbot in the 1957 Elvis Presley film Jailhouse Rock. He portrayed a soldier in both Imitation General (1957) with Glenn Ford and Never So Few (1959) with Frank Sinatra. On November 22, 1960, Jones had a major role in the episode "Red Sand" of ABC's Stagecoach West. Jones subsequently starred in the NBC television sitcom Ensign O'Toole from 1962–1963, produced by Four Star Television. Disney signed Jones on for a string of Disney films in the 1960s and 1970s, beginning with That Darn Cat! (actress Hayley Mills' last film at Disney). His performance was so well-received that Disney used him for future movies including The Ugly Dachshund, Blackbeard's Ghost and Snowball Express. Jones' signature Disney role would be as racecar driver Jim Douglas in the highly successful The Love Bug series. He appeared in two feature films (The Love Bug and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo), as well as the short-lived Herbie, the Love Bug television series produced in 1982 and the made-for-TV movie The Love Bug in 1997. In 1978 Jones took a dramatic turn, portraying Ed Cooper in the NBC television movie When Every Day Was the Fourth of July.
The film received critical acclaim and in 1980, Jones reprised the role of Ed Cooper in the ABC television sequel The Long Days of Summer. In 1991 Jones appeared with Gregory Peck and Danny DeVito as Bill Coles, the president of Peck's company, which was fighting a hostile takeover by DeVito, in Other People's Money. Jones then appeared as Dr. Herman Varnick, the evil veterinarian in the family film Beethoven in 1992. He also appeared in a small role as Director of Central Intelligence Judge Arthur Moore in 1994's film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger, starring Harrison Ford. On July 25, 1994, Jones was a guest on 100 Huntley Street.
Jones died on September 1, 2015, in Los Angeles after suffering from Nervous Exhaust. He was 84.

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