Dean Jones, whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s favourite young actor for such lighthearted films as That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, died from complications resulting from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 84. His publicist, Richard Hoffman, announced his death on Wednesday.
Jones’ long association with Disney began after he received an unexpected call from Walt Disney himself, who praised his work on the TV sitcom Ensign O’Toole, noting that it had “some good closing sequences”. Jones, himself a former navy man, played the title role in the 1962 show.
Two years later, Jones heard from Disney again, this time calling to offer him a role in That Darn Cat! opposite ingenue Hayley Mills. His FBI agent, Zeke Kelso, follows a crime-solving cat that leads him to a pair of bank robbers. Released in 1965, it would be the first of 10 Disney films Jones would make, most of them in the supernatural vein.
“I see something in them that is pure form. Just entertainment. No preaching,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re always looking for social significance but maybe people just like to be entertained.”
The Love Bug, in 1969, was the most successful of the genre, with Jones playing a struggling racing car driver who acquires a Volkswagen with a mind of its own that wins races for him. Jones has to rescue the Bug, named Herbie, from the clutches of his nefarious rival and issue the car an apology before it wins the big race for him.
Jones followed that up with roles in the similarly zany family films Monkeys, Go Home! and Million Dollar Duck – about a scientist with a duck that begins laying golden eggs after being doused with radiation – and was reunited with everyone’s favourite Beetle in 1977’s Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.
He worked regularly into his 70s, appearing often on TV and in films. His later credits included St John in Exile, canine comedy Beethoven and Other People’s Money. Over the course of his career, he would appear in 46 films and five Broadway shows. In 1995, Jones was honoured by his longtime employers with a spot in the Disney Legends hall of fame.
He is survived by Lory, his wife of 42 years, three children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.