John Christopher Jones, 1948 – 2025

Broadway star John Christopher Jones, 77, died of Parkinson’s disease on Sept. 15 (he was diagnosed in 2003, but kept working through this year). Jones was born in Massachusetts, where he founded a Shakespearean company. Moving to New York, he worked his way through smaller productions, eventually appearing on Broadway in Hurlyburly, The Iceman Cometh, Beauty and the Beast, The Goodbye Girl, Otherwise Engaged, Heartbreak House, A Month in the Country, and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. On film and TV, Jones had (mostly small) roles in In & Out, Spenser: For Hire, Moonstruck, As the World Turns, The Sopranos, Ed, 100 Centre Street, and Law & Order, among others. Jones once recalled playing the porter in Macbeth: “The porter in Macbeth is the smallest part I’ve ever played, all of two pages. But everybody remembers the porter because he says, “Remember the porter.” He tells the audience, “Remember the porter!” before he leaves.”