Dickie Jones
American actor who achieved some success as a child and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns and in television. The son of a Texas newspaper editor, Jones was a prodigious horseman from infancy, billed at the age of four as the World's Youngest Trick Rider and Trick Roper. At the age of six, he was hired to perform riding and lariat tricks in the rodeo owned by western star Hoot Gibson. Gibson convinced young Jones and his parents that there was a place for him in Hollywood, and the boy and his mother went west. Gibson arranged for some small parts for the boy, whose good looks, energy, and pleasant voice quickly landed him more and bigger parts, both in low-budget Westerns and in more substantial productions. In 1940, he had one of his most prominent (although invisible) roles, as the voice of Pinocchio (1940) in Walt Disney's animated film of the same name. Jones attended Hollywood High School and, at 15, took over the role of Henry Aldrich on the hit radio show "The Aldrich Family." He learned carpentry and augmented his income with jobs in that field. He served in the Army in Alaska during the final months of World War II. Gene Autry, who before the war had cast Jones in several Westerns, put him back to work in films and particularly in television, on programs produced by Autry's company. Now billed as Dick Jones, the handsome young man starred as Dick West, sidekick to the Western hero known as The Range Rider (1951), in a TV series that ran for 76 episodes in 1951 (and for decades in syndication). Then Autry gave Jones his own series, Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955), which ran for 40 episodes. Jones continued working in films throughout the 1950s, then retired and entered the business world.
Date of Death: 7 July 2014, Northridge, Los Angeles, California
Acted in
The Making of 'Pinocchio': No Strings Attached
2009
as Himself
A Wish Came True: The Making of 'Pinocchio'
2000
as Himself
Pinocchio: The Making of a Masterpiece
1993
as Self
It All Started with a Mouse: The Disney Story
1989
as Self
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
1979
as Self
Requiem for a Gunfighter
1965
as Cliff Fletcher
The Devil's Bedroom
1964
as Norm
The Night Rider
1962
as Billy Joe
Shadow of the Boomerang
1961
as Bob Prince
The Cool and the Crazy
1958
as Stu Summerville (as Dick Jones)
The Wild Dakotas
1956
as Mike McGeehee
Buffalo Bill Jr.
1955
as Buffalo Bill Jr.
Attila
1954
The Bamboo Prison
1954
as Jackie
Last of the Pony Riders
1953
as Johnny Blair
The Old West
1952
as Pinto
Wagon Team
1952
as Dave Weldon, aka The Apache Kid (as Dick Jones)
Fort Worth
1951
as Luther Wicks (as Dick Jones)
The Range Rider
1951
Rocky Mountain
1950
as Jim 'Buck' Wheat
Redwood Forest Trail
1950
as Mighty Mite
The Gene Autry Show
1950
Military Academy with That Tenth Avenue Gang
1950
as Richard Reilly (uncredited)
Sands of Iwo Jima
1950
as Scared Marine (uncredited)
Sons of New Mexico
1949
as Randy Pryor
The Lone Ranger
1949
as Jim Douglas
The Strawberry Roan
1948
as Joe Bailey
Musical Movieland
1944
as Tourist (uncredited)
The Adventures of Mark Twain
1944
as Young Samuel Clemens
The Outlaw
1943
as Boy (uncredited)
Mountain Rhythm
1943
as Darwood Gates Alton
The Vanishing Virginian
1942
as Robert Yancey, Jr.
Adventure in Washington
1941
as Abbott
Knute Rockne All American
1940
as Boy Captain (uncredited)
Brigham Young
1940
as Henry Kent
The Howards of Virginia
1940
as Matt Howard at 12
Maryland
1940
as Lee Danfield, Age 12
Virginia City
1940
as Cobby
Pinocchio
1940
as Pinocchio / Alexander (voice) (uncredited)
Destry Rides Again
1939
as Claggett Boy
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1939
as Richard Jones (uncredited)
Sky Patrol
1939
as Bobby Landis
On Borrowed Time
1939
as Boy in Tree (uncredited)
Young Mr. Lincoln
1939
as Adam Clay as a Boy (uncredited)
The Man Who Dared
1939
as Bill Carter
Sergeant Madden
1939
as Dennis Madden, as a boy
Nancy Drew... Reporter
1939
as Killer Parkins
Woman Doctor
1939
as Johnny
The Frontiersmen
1938
as Artie Peters
Land of Fighting Men
1938
as Jimmy Mitchell
Girls on Probation
1938
as Magazine Newsboy
A Man to Remember
1938
as Dick Abbott (as a boy)
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
1938
as Buddy
The Devil's Party
1938
as Young Joe
Border Wolves
1938
as Jimmie Benton
The Kid Comes Back
1938
as Bobby Doyle
Hollywood Round-Up
1937
as Dickie Stevens
The Pigskin Palooka
1937
as Spike (as Our Gang)
Love Is on the Air
1937
as Bill - Mouse's Friend
Renfrew of the Royal Mounted
1937
as Tommy MacDonald
Stella Dallas
1937
as Lee Morrison
Flying Fists
1937
as Dickie Martin
Smoke Tree Range
1937
as Teddy Page
Land Beyond the Law
1937
as Bobby Skinner (uncredited)
Ready, Willing and Able
1937
as Junior
Blake of Scotland Yard
1937
as Bobby Mason
Blake of Scotland Yard
1937
as Bobby Mason
Black Legion
1937
as Buddy Taylor
Wild Horse Round-Up
1936
as Dickie Williams
Daniel Boone
1936
as Master Jerry Randolph
Who's Looney Now
1936
as Sonny Brown
Love Begins at Twenty
1936
as Boy on Streetcar
36 Hours to Kill
1936
as Little Boy Selling The Garden Beautiful
Sutter's Gold
1936
as 2nd Newsboy
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
1936
as Jimmy McLaw
Gasoloons
1936
as Wilbur
Our Gang Follies of 1936
1935
as Dickie
Moonlight on the Prairie
1935
as Dickie Roberts
O'Shaughnessy's Boy
1935
as Boy with Sling Shot at Parade
Westward Ho
1935
as Jim Wyatt as a Child
The Hawk
1935
as Dickie Thomas
The Call of the Savage
1935
as Jan Trevor as a Boy
Queen of the Jungle
1935
as David Worth as a child
Babes in Toyland
1934
as Schoolboy (uncredited)
Little Men
1934
as Dolly