Biography
Freddie Jones was an English actor. Born Frederick Charles Jones in Dresden, a suburb of Longton in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, he trained at Rose Bruford College after working for ten years as a laboratory assistant. He made his mark on television as Claudius in the 1968 series The Caesars and originated the role of Sir in Ronald Harwood’s stage play The Dresser in 1980.
In film, Jones appeared as Bytes, the exploitative freak-show owner, in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980). He collaborated further with Lynch on Dune (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990), and took supporting roles in films including Krull (1983), Firefox (1982), Firestarter (1984), The Black Cauldron (1985) and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985).
From 2005 to 2018 he played Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Jones was the father of actor Toby Jones. He died on 9 July 2019, aged 91.
