Though he has played his share of rednecks in films, Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Tommy Lee Jones is in real life a top-notch polo player and famously was Vice President Al Gore‘s roommate while both were studying at Harvard. Jones is an actor who is always full of surprises.
Having gotten his start acting in soap operas and independent films, Jones quickly moved up the ladder, earning his first Golden Globe nomination as singer Loretta Lynn‘s husband in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (opposite Academy Award champ Sissy Spacek). As his work continued to grow, so did Jones’ trophy case. In his film career of over four decades, Jones earned four Oscar nominations (including a win for 1993’s “The Fugitive,”) three Golden Globe nominations (also including a win for “The Fugitive”) and four Screen Actors Guild nominations (including two SAG trophies for 2007’s “No Country For Old Men” and 2012’s “Lincoln”).
So, let’s count down his 13 greatest films, ranked from worst to best, in the photo gallery.
-
13. JACKSON COUNTY JAIL (1976)
Image Credit: United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Michael Miller. Writer: Donald E. Stewart. Starring Yvette Mimieux, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Carradine.
“Jackson County Jail” was one of a long line of exploitation films that regularly played drive-in theaters in the 1970s, films that critics routinely ignored. But this film about a white businesswoman (Yvette Mimieux) who gets raped by several men and thrown in jail had one element that made critics sit up and take notice — an young actor with a craggy face and an unusual delivery. When I first watched “Jackson County Jail” back in 1977, I had not ever heard the name Tommy Lee Jones. But we all do now.
-
12. HOPE SPRINGS (2012)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock Director: David Frankel. Writer: Vanessa Taylor. Starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell.
Jones is reunited with his “Prairie Home Companion” co-star Meryl Streep in David Frankel’s comedy/drama as a married couple who suddenly find themselves as empty-nesters who feel that they need to reconnect physically so that they can save their marriage. Kay (Streep) drags the grumpy Arnold (Jones) to see a marriage counselor (Steve Carell) who tries everything he knows to get through to the resistant Arnold. It’s surprising to see Jones in a rom-com, but the curmudgeonly Arnold is a good fit for him.
-
11. COBB (1994)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Ron Shelton. Based on the book by Al Stump. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Wuhl, Lolita Davidovich.
Ron Shelton’s first baseball-themed film after “Bull Durham” is anything but the fun romance of that earlier movie. Sportswriter Al Stump (Robert Wuhl) is hired to write the official biography of baseball legend Ty Cobb (Jones) who is in failing health. Instead of being a baseball elder statesman, Cobb is now a pernicious, racist drunk who quickly becomes abusive to Stump, as the pair make the cross-country drive for Cobb’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Cobb is easily the least likable character that Jones has ever played, but, as always, he’s fully committed to the character.
-
10. IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH (2007)
Image Credit: Lorey Sebastian/Warner Independent/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Paul Haggis. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, James Franco.
Jones earned his third Academy Award nomination for this real-life story of military police vet Hank Deerfield (Jones) who begins his own investigation when his son, who recently returned from Iraq, goes missing. He teams up with a local cop (Charlize Theron) to try to get to the truth, and both become suspicious when military officials step in to stop the investigation. That doesn’t deter Hank, who is shocked when he eventually gets to what really happened to his son. Though the film was little-seen, “In the Valley of Elah” contains one of Jones’ major performances.
-
9. A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (2006)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock Director: Robert Altman. Writer: Garrison Keillor. Starring Garrison Keillor, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson.
Jones joined fellow Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline in their first experience of working with the late master Robert Altman in Altman’s final film “A Prairie Home Companion.” Based on Garrison Keillor’s radio show, the film deals with the possible cancellation of the show by the radio station and theater’s new owners, personified by The Axeman (Jones), who is the one who has to decide whether the show will be axed. Jones makes a great villain here, skulking around in the shadows of the theater during what might be the show’s final episode.
-
8. THE BURIAL (2023)
Image Credit: Amazon Director: Maggie Betts. Writers: Doug Wright, Maggie Betts. Starring Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett, Alan Ruck, Bill Camp, Mamoudou Athie, Amanda Warren, Pamela Reed.
In Maggie Betts’s courtroom crowd-pleaser “The Burial,” Jones co-stars as the real life Jeremiah O’Keefe, a modest funeral director who feels screwed over by a heartless funeral conglomerate and hires flashy attorney Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx) to take his case. It is in the quiet sit-down scenes between Jones and Foxx where their characters size each other up and realize that they’re meant to work together that the heart and soul of “The Burial” truly resides.
-
7. THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (2005)
Image Credit: Dawn Jones/Europa Corp/Sony/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Tommy Lee Jones. Writer: Guillermo Arriaga. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam.
Jones won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for this, his directorial debut. He plays rancher Pete Perkins, who is the best friend of Melquiades Estrada, an illegal immigrant who is shot by Border Patrol Officer Norton (Barry Pepper). Perkins, who had promised his friend a burial in Mexico orders Norton to dig up the body, which he then returns, along with prisoner Norton in tow, across the border to Mexico. Jones’ directing style here is simple and no nonsense.
-
6. MEN IN BLACK (1997)
Image Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Barry Sonnenfeld. Writer: Ed Solomon. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Vincent D’Onofrio, Linda Fiorentino.
Barry Sonnenfeld’s sci-fi comedy was Jones’ biggest financial success ever, enough to spawn two sequels in which Jones also appeared. He co-stars as Agent K, veteran of the Men in Black (MIB) unit, who takes on rookie Agent J (Will Smith) as his new partner. Together they ferret out aliens on earth who are disguising themselves as humans in order to take over the planet. Jones’ droll wit is perfectly matched by Smith’s hyperactive enthusiasm.
-
5. COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER (1980)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Michael Apted. Writer: Tom Rickman. Starring Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, Levon Helm.
Jones transitioned from the indie world of “Jackson County Jail” to the big time with his portrayal of Doo, the devoted husband of singer Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek), who gives up his job in the forest industry to become Loretta’s de facto manager. Jones’ portrayal of Doo was warm and loving, and the chemistry between Jones and Spacek was palpable — they really felt like both a couple and a team. For his performance as Doo, Jones earned his first Golden Globe nomination.
-
4. JFK (1991)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Oliver Stone. Writers: Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar. Starring Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Oldman.
Jones earned his first Academy Award nomination for his performance as the real-life Clay Shaw, a gay New Orleans businessman who is investigated and indicted by D.A. Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) for conspiring to kill President John F. Kennedy. Shaw’s trial consumes most of “JFK’s” third act, in which Jones’ character is mostly reactive, yet Jones reveals volumes about what the ever-smoking Shaw is thinking, not through histrionics through his subtly fey gestures. Great stuff.
-
3. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)
Image Credit: Paramount/Miramax/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writers/Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. From the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin.
In the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2007, Jones stars as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, who learns that deputy sheriff Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) has absconded with $2 million in drug cartel money and that brutal killer Anton Chigurh (Oscar winner Javier Bardem), who has been hired to recover the cash, is hot on his trail. Jones plays Sheriff Bell with a world-weariness that is both skillful and rings absolutely true. As part of the ensemble of “No Country For Old Men,” Jones won his first Screen Actors Guild Award.
-
2. THE FUGITIVE (1993)
Image Credit: Stephen Vaughan/Warner Bros/REX/Shutterstock Director: Andrew Davis. Writers: David Twohy, Jeb Stuart. Starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward.
Andrew Davis’ film based on the hit 1960s television series stars Harrison Ford as Dr. David Kimble who is falsely convicted of killing his wife and escapes from custody. He is tracked down relentlessly by Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard, who is determined to capture the fugitive. When found by Gerard, Kimble holds him at gunpoint and pleads, “I didn’t kill my wife.” Gerard, his hands raised, simply responds, “I don’t care.” And he doesn’t. For his performance at Lt. Gerard, Jones won his first Academy Award and his first Golden Globe Award.
-
1. LINCOLN (2012)
Image Credit: Dreamworks/20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Steven Spielberg. Writer: Tony Kushner, from the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Hal Holbrook.
Jones plucked the plum role of abolitionist Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in Steven Spielberg’s epic story about Abraham Lincoln (Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis), and Jones’ performance earned him his second Screen Actors Guild Award. The colorful Rep. Stevens tried to hold President Lincoln’s feet to the fire when it came to not turning his back on emancipation, and the President followed through, getting Congress to pass the historic 13th Amendment designed to ensure racial equality. For “Lincoln,” Jones was also nominated for his fourth Academy Award and his third Golden Globe Award for film.
