He was born in Jackson, Tennessee, where his father was a grocery clerk and his mother, Robbie, was an artist. Jones's father admitted her to the state hospital in Bolivar, Tennessee, in 1945, for holding a gun to his head after he was caught being unfaithful. Jones and his brother were then placed in Boys Town in Memphis, where he became a fan of James Dean after being told he bore a resemblance to him. He then joined the Army, but went AWOL, and after serving a sentence in a military prison, he moved to New York, where he began his acting career. His mother died when he was 19.
Acting career
Jones made his Broadway debut on December 17, 1961, in Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana, directed by Frank Corsaro and starring Shelley Winters. Winters introduced Jones to actress Susan Strasberg, the daughter of method acting progenitor Lee Strasberg. Jones studied at Strasberg's Actors Studio. Jones married Susan in 1965; the couple divorced in 1968. Their daughter, Jennifer Robin Jones, was born in 1966. Moving to Hollywood, Jones was cast in the title role of ABC's television seriesThe Legend of Jesse James, which ran for 34 episodes in the 1965–66 season. When the series ended, he accepted the title role in the 1968 movieChubasco with Susan Strasberg playing his character's lover/wife. Their real marriage did not survive the filming, and they divorced in 1968. Jones's next acting role, was rock star and presidential aspirant Max Frost in the influential cult film Wild in the Streets, co-starring Shelley Winters, Hal Holbrook, and a young Richard Pryor. Later that same year, Jones appeared with Yvette Mimieux in the hit sex comedy Three in the Attic. After two films in Europe with Pia Degermark, Jones was cast by director David Lean in Ryan's Daughter. The two men had a difficult relationship; this was the experience of many actors who worked with Lean. The problems intensified when production of the film took 12 months instead of the expected six, because Lean would wait for the right composition of clouds or the perfect storm to brew. Unbeknownst to Jones, he was drugged during his filming of Ryan's Daughter by Sarah Miles, according to her first autobiography A Right Royal Bastard; this caused him to believe he was having a breakdown. Jones also was involved in a car crash, not knowing he had been drugged. The director and producers never informed him of the drugging. Later, Lean dubbed his voice, causing the actor a bad reputation. This took a personal toll on Jones, who returned from Ireland to California after filming ended, and abandoned his acting career. He engaged in a few long-term relationships, did painting, art deco, and Roman classic sculpting in clay, and had a family life, living quietly at the beach with his children.
Later life
Jones was offered the part of Zed in Pulp Fiction by director Quentin Tarantino, but he turned it down. He made a final screen appearance in crime comedy Mad Dog Time for his friend, director/actor Larry Bishop, who had appeared in Wild in the Streets. In his later years, Jones had a career as an artist and sculptor. His works included an oil painting of Rudolph Valentino that was displayed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Death
Jones died on January 31, 2014, at the age of 72, owing to complications arising from gallbladder cancer. He is survived by seven children, Jennifer Strasberg, Christopher Jones Jr., Jeromy McKenna, Delon Jones, Tauer Jones, Calin Jones, and Seagen Jones. He is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In July 2018, actress Olivia Hussey claimed that she was raped by Jones in the houseRoman Polanski had shared with his wife Sharon Tate, weeks after Tate's death. Hussey says that she had dated Jones in the late 1960s, but ended the relationship because he was physically abusive toward her.
