Davy Jones (actor)
From Free net encyclopedia
Current revision
- "Davy Jones" redirects here, for other uses see David Jones.
Davy Jones (born December 30, 1945) is an actor and singer.
Biography
David Thomas Jones was born in Manchester, England. His father had hopes for him as a jockey, but Jones was more interested in being in show business, and as a teenager he appeared on British soap operas, including Coronation Street. He appeared to great acclaim in the musical Oliver! as the Artful Dodger, playing the role both in London and on Broadway, where he was nominated for a Tony Award. (When the film of the musical was made in 1968, Jones was at the height of his TV success and too heavily committed to take the part.) He then toured in another musical adaptation of a Charles Dickens classic, Pickwick, and did some American television as well as recording three singles. As part of the Oliver! cast, Jones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on the same night that the Beatles made their American TV debut on the show.
From 1965 to 1970, Jones was a member of The Monkees, a pop-rock group formed expressly for a TV show of the same name. He sang lead vocals on many of the group's songs, including "I Wanna Be Free." After the show went off the air and the group disbanded, he continued to perform solo, later joining with fellow-Monkee Micky Dolenz and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as a short-lived group.
In recent years, Jones has performed with his former bandmates in reunion tours and has appeared in several productions of Oliver! as Fagin. He has also continued to race horses with some success in his native England, United Kingdom, while residing in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, United States.