L.Q. Jones, a Villain With a Grin

The highly respected Texas actor and director reflects on a 50-year career in Hollywood.

- Henry C.Parke

L.Q.Jones, the sandy-haired giant with the high cheekbones, warm smile and ice-cold blue eyes, is set to celebrate his 94th birthday this August. He’s been a constant, mostly menacing, screen presence for five decades. His last film was 2006’s Prairie Home Companion. The veteran of hundreds of big and small-screen performances recently told True West, “We didn't know it while it was taking place, but when we did The Wild Bunch, it changed the way the pictures were accepted, changed them 180 degrees. And, oddly enough, I happened to be in another picture, The Mask of Zorro, that changed it back.” He explained that the former brought an unflinching look at brutal violence, and the latter marked a return to thrills with less realistic blood-letting. It’s no surprise that his lengthy career has bridged many cinematic trends.

He got his boot in the door thanks to his former University of Texas in Austin roommate, Fess Parker, who also got fraternity brother the late Morgan Woodward his first role. Woodward recalled, “Fess sneaked him in to see director Raoul Walsh, and L.Q. is so crazy, he convinced him that he ought to be in the picture.” It didn’t hurt that Fess, by then TV’s Davy Crockett, also got writer and future director Burt Kennedy to rewrite L.Q.’s dull audition scene. L.Q. was so pleased with the role that he took his character’s name for his own; until then he’d been Justus McQueen.