September 1 - Dean Jones

On this day, in 2015, Dean Carroll Jones passed away from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles, CA.

Born on January 25, 1931 in Decatur, AL, Dean started in professional show business while attending Riverside High School. He could be heard on the local radio station in his very own show, "Dean Jones Sings".

From the success of that show, Dean left school and began traveling, working odd jobs, looking for a new gig. He found one in New Orleans for the grand salary of $3/hour plus all he could eat. Maybe the teen-aged Dean ate too much though, because the club went out of business and he returned home to finish school.

After graduation, Dean enrolled in Asbury College near Lexington, Kentucky as part of the class of 1953. He wouldn't graduate, however, as the call of the Korean War enticed him to move to San Diego, California and join the Naval Air Corps.  After an honorable discharge in the summer of 1954, Dean began performing in a show at the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm. This show led to a contract with MGM, where, as Dean put it, they were grooming him to become the next James Dean. Although he would have a near fatal motorcycle accident later in life, that plan did not gain much traction.

After a series of minor film roles, working with such stars as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, Dean made his Broadway debut in 1960's "There Was a Little Girl" with Jane Fonda. That show only lasted for 16 performances, but later that year he would star as Dave Manning in the comedy "Under the Yum-Yum Tree". Dean's sophomore Broadway effort would run for over 170 performances and he would reprise the role in the 1963 film version alongside Jack Lemmon.

Various roles on television led to Dean getting cast in an NBC sitcom, "Ensign O'Toole", as the title character. As luck would have it, "Ensign" was the lead in show for "The Wonderful World of Color" and Dean caught the eye of one of the producers of "Color", Walt Disney.

Based on Dean's work in "Ensign O'Toole" and "Under the Yum-Yum Tree", Walt thought he would be perfect for FBI agent Zeke Kelso in "That Darn Cat". Dean's first picture with Disney would also be costar Haley Mills' last. Audiences so enjoyed Dean's performance, that Walt would use him again in 1966's "The Ugly Dachshund". After Walt's death, Dean would continue to be a regular for the studio throughout the rest of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. He appeared in:

Monkeys,Go Home with Maurice Chevalier

Blackbeard's Ghost with Peter Ustinov

The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit with a young Kurt Russell

The Million Dollar Duck with Sandy Duncan

Snowball Express with Nancy Olsen and Harry Morgan

The Shaggy D.A. with Tim Conway

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, a 1995 Wonderful World of Disney remake of the 1969 original

Dean's biggest hit with the Disney Studio was easily 1968's "The Love Bug". Starring as Jim Douglas, the owner and driver of a surprisingly active Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie, Dean helped create the year's third highest grossing film. He would go on to reprise the role in one of the film's four sequels, "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo",  in a short lived television series in the early 1980s and as a cameo in a 1997 television remake of the original film.

Outside of Disney, Dean returned to Broadway in 1970, originating the role of Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company. He was only able to perform the role for a month because of bitter divorce proceedings he was going through at the same time.

 Dean became a born again Christian in the mid 1970s which caused him to put the brakes on his acting career. As he put it, he limited his opportunities so he could live with himself, turning down a number of "cheapo films with graphic sex." He appeared in a handful of films after that: "Other People's Money", "Beethoven" (uncharacteristically as the villain), and a number of Christian movies. He also did a variety of guest appearances on television, shows like "The Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote." In 1998, Dean founded the Christian Rescue Committee to provide a "way of escape to Jews, Christians and others persecuted for their faith."

In 1995, Dean was made a Disney Legend for his legacy of contributions to the studio's film history.