LQ Jones, a hairy, shaggy, boastful Texan who innocently played the antihero in some 60 movies and dozens of television series, died Saturday at his home in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. He was 94.
His death was confirmed by his grandson Erté deGarces.
A former stand-up comic, Mr. Jones also tried his hand as a bean, corn and dairy farmer in Nicaragua, once describing himself as “just hours away from three degrees — one in law, one in business, one in journalism” at the University of Texas.
But he was taken to the Warner Bros. studios. lured when a roommate, Fess Parker, the actor who later played both Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, persuaded him to audition for a small part in the 1955 film “Battle Cry,” directed by Raoul Walsh and an adaptation of the novel. by Leon Uris.
Mr. Parker sent him a copy of the book and a map with directions to Warner’s property. mr. Jones was cast in two days.
Billed as Justus E. McQueen (his birth name), he first appeared on screen when the film’s narrator introduced a group of US Army recruits who were sent to training camp by train. The camera then turned to a character named LQ Jones.
“Then, abruptly, the narrator’s voice drops to the contemptuous tone of a 10th-grade math teacher handing out detention,” wrote Justin Humphreys in “Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget” (2006).
‘There’s one in each group,’ he tells us, as we watch LQ mischievously give one of the other aspiring soldiers a hotfoot,’ Mr Humphrey added. “There couldn’t have been a more perfect start to LQ Jones’ career in film. The word that best sums up his predominant screen character is hellion.
The actor looted the character’s name for his own subsequent screen credits. From then on, Justus McQueen was LQ Jones.
mr. Jones joined director Sam Peckinpah’s acting stable, which appeared in “Ride the High Country” (1962), “Major Dundee” (1965) and “The Wild Bunch” (1969), in which he and his co-star actor Strother Martin plays rival bounty hunters and, as the studio described their manic competition for the highest kill count, “bring their wicked characters to life with a childlike energy.”
mr. Jones was also frequently featured in the rush of westerns that hit TV in the 1950s and 1960s, including “Cheyenne,” “Gunsmoke,” “Wagon Train” and “Rawhide.” His films included the 1968 westerns ‘Hang ’em High’, in which he hung a noose around Clint Eastwood’s neck, and ‘Stay Away, Joe’ with Elvis Presley. Among his other film credits were Martin Scorsese’s “Casino” (1995) and Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion” (2006), his last film.
mr. Jones directed, produced, and helped write “A Boy and His Dog” (1975), a dark post-apocalyptic comedy starring Don Johnson and Jason Robards, based on Harlan Ellison’s book of the same name.
“’A Boy and His Dog’, a fantasy about the world after a future holocaust, is more or less a beginner’s film. It has some good ideas and some terrible ones,” Richard Eder wrote in his DailyExpertNews review.
“This is the second film directed by LQ Jones, better known as an actor,” continued Mr. Eder. “It’s not really a success, but I hope he continues to direct.”
He didn’t. “A Boy and His Dog” gained cult status, but Mr. Jones returned to what he did best. He preferred the independence of choosing the villainous roles that appealed to him and measured his success, over the prospect of directing someone else’s script and arguing over life-size egos.
“Different parts require different centers of gravity,” said Mr. Jones to William R. Horner for his book “Bad at the Bijou” (1982).
“I have a certain presence,” he explained. “I often play against that presence, and that’s a heavy that’s not crazy or insane — although we play that one, of course — but rather someone who’s a heavy because he enjoys being a heavy.”
“It’s really hard to say what they’re looking for when they choose me,” said Mr. Jones. “Often your heavy isn’t portrayed very well in the script. He is usually too one-sided. So we look for things to get heavy: a certain softness; a vulnerability that makes him human; a quiet moment when he is usually a screamer; a look; the way he dresses; the way he walks into a room.”
Mr. Jones was born Justus Ellis McQueen Jr. on August 19, 1927 in Beaumont, Texas. His father was a railroad worker; his mother, Jessie Paralee (Stephens) McQueen, died in a car accident when he was a child. He learned to ride horses when he was 8.
After graduating from high school, he served in the Navy, attended Lamar Junior College and Lon Morris College in Texas, and briefly attended the University of Texas at Austin.
His marriage to Sue Lewis ended in divorce. In addition to his grandson, among his survivors are his sons, Randy McQueen and Steve Marshall, and his daughter, Mindy McQueen.
Mr. Jones seemed to measure success less in his bank account (he once described himself as “independently poor”) than in professional satisfaction. But he had a sense of humor about it.
“I’m somewhere nearby, probably just counting my money,” the message read on his answering machine. “When I’m done, if I’m not too tired, I’ll call you back.”