Dean Jones: The Love Bug Pilot
Dean Carroll Jones was born in Decatur, Alabama on January 25th, 1931. He attended River Side High School where he hosted his own radio show, Dean Jones Sings. He also served in the United States Navy during the Korean War and after he was discharged, worked at the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It was there that Jones developed an interest in acting. He went to Asbury University as a college student in Wilmore near Lexington, Kentucky in 1953, though he did not graduate from the university. However, despite neither graduating nor receiving any formal training as an actor, he was fortunate enough to land bit roles in movies and television including Jailhouse Rock (1957) starring Elvis Presley and Imitation General (1958) with Red Buttons. And in 1960 he landed his first Broadway play at the age of 29, opposite Jane Fonda in There Was a Little Girl.
Two years later, Jones landed the title role of Ensign O’Toole in the NBC sit-com of the same name. The show caught the attention of Walt Disney because it happened to compete with ABC’s Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1961-1969). After having seen the show, and seeing him in Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), the movie version of Jones’ Broadway role, Walt Disney signed him. Under contract from 1965 to 1977, Jones made his Disney debut in That Darn Cat! (1965) opposite Disney child star Hayley Mills who made her final Disney appearance in the film.
Next, he made his first appearance with frequent co-star Suzanne Pleshette in The Ugly Dachshund (1966). After that, Monkey’s, Go Home! (1967) co-starring Maurice Chevalier and Yvette Mimieux. 1968 turned out to be Dean Jones’ busiest year throughout his time at the Walt Disney Studios, because it was the year he made the films: Blackbeard’s Ghost, which would be his first reunion with Suzanne Pleshette, The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit, with Kurt Russell, and he narrated the television special The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show. 1968 would also be the year Dean Jones starred in what is arguably his most popular Disney film, The Love Bug. After “Love Bug,” Jones made The Million Dollar Duck (1971) which reunited him with “Love Bug,” co-star Joe Flynn. The following year, he made Snowball Express (1972) and four years later, The Shaggy D.A. (1976) which was his third pairing with Suzanne Pleshette. Dean Jones’ final Disney film was the third in the Disney studios series of “Herbie, the Love Bug” films, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977). Dean Jones also appeared in the short-lived Disney sit-com Herbie, The Love Bug (1982).
Besides making many beloved Disney films, in the later years of his career Dean Jones starred in two episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996) with friend/fellow Disney Legend Angela Lansbury. A born again Christian, he created a one-man show on Broadway entitled St. John in Exile, which at one point was filmed live, in 1986. Jones also took on the role of the evil Dr. Herman Varnick in Beethoven (1992) which was one of the very few times in his career where he portrayed a villain. The film spawned a short-lived animated series of the same name where Jones provided the voice of the George Newton, the patriarch of the Newton family who adopt Beethoven as one of their own. (George Newton was played by Charles Grodin in the movie.) He also made bit appearances in Disney’s remakes of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1995), The Love Bug (1997) and That Darn Cat! (1997).
Dean Jones passed away due to Parkinson’s disease at the age of 84 on September 1st, 2015. He played a great deal of nice guys on Television, Broadway, and Film, and he will forever be remembered as the man who piloted Herbie the Volkswagen.
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