Fred Jones

On the strength of his performance as Claudius in the '60s British TV series The Caesars, Freddie Jones won the 1969 World's Best TV Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. It was an honor he'd seldom be in danger of winning again. A one-time lab technician who'd won a scholarship to the Rose Buford College of Speech and Drama, Jones started out as a stage actor of unusual perception and intelligence. He gave audiences a taste of what was to come with a small screeching role in his first film, Marat/Sade (1966). Biding his time in staid character roles for his few years in films, Jones let loose with his performance as a dedicated scientist turned synthetic monster in 1970's Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. After this, the estimable Jones became, if not Britain's Vincent Price, certainly Britain's Anthony Zerbe. Twitchy, eccentric, and about as subtle as a cattle stampede, Jones built up his fan following in such concoctions as The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), Krull (1983), Dune (1984), Erik the Viking (1989) and Wild at Heart (1990). Freddie Jones may have long since abandoned any efforts at screen realism, but he definitely knows on which side his bread is buttered. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide