Where Is Jeffrey Jones Now? A Look at the Disgraced Actor’s Life

Jeffrey Jones was a prolific actor in the 1980s and ’90s thanks to his roles in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Beetlejuice, but his career came to an abrupt halt in 2002.

The Golden Globe-nominated actor was charged with soliciting a minor and possession of child pornography and, a year later, was sentenced to five years of probation.

While he still occasionally appears in projects, most notably Deadwood, the disgraced actor has maintained a significantly low profile since his arrest. He also did not return for the 2024 Beetlejuice sequel, which addressed his absence by killing his character, Charles Deetz, off in a rather brutal fashion.

In the film, Charles survives a plane crash, nearly drowns and is finally eaten by a shark.

“The way Charles dies in that animated piece is Tim’s nightmare of dying,” screenwriter Alfred Gough explained to Entertainment Weekly. “He literally pitched that: ‘My nightmare is, I’m in a plane crash, I survive the plane crash, I almost drown, and then a shark eats me.’ ”

Here’s everything to know about where disgraced actor Jeffrey Jones is now.

Who is Jeffrey Jones?

Jones was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept. 28, 1946, later moving to Putney, Vt. After high school, Jones attended college, where he was a pre-med student and acted in college productions.

He dropped out in his sophomore year after he got a role in a play at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater, where he met its namesake, director Tyrone Guthrie.

Guthrie took Jones under his wing and even paid for him to go to drama school in London, Jones recalled in a 1997 interview with Readjunk.

He then moved to New York City to make himself more available for castings and theater, and his role in the off-Broadway play Cloud 9 landed him two big breaks: a job in the 1983 comedy Easy Money and the part of Emperor Joseph II in 1984’s Amadeus. Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe for the latter.

Jones’ most famous roles were as Principal Ed Rooney in the 1986 hit Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and as patriarch Charles Deetz in Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice. Jones worked with Burton frequently thereafter, appearing in Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow.

What happened to Jeffrey Jones?

Jones’ career largely ended in November 2002 when he was arrested and charged with employing a minor to take sexually explicit photos and being in possession of child pornography, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The child in the case, a boy from Fontana, Calif., was reportedly 14 years old when Jones paid him twice to pose for nude photographs at Jones’ home. The Los Angeles Times reported that Jones had the child pose nude wearing a cowboy hat, dressed as an indigenous person and holding a stuffed animal. The offenses reportedly occurred in 1999 and 2000.

Jones faced three years in prison if convicted of all charges, according to Entertainment Weekly.

What was Jeffrey Jones’ sentence?

In July 2003, Jones pleaded no contest to soliciting a minor and prosecutors agreed to drop the possession of child pornography charge.

According to the Los Angeles Times, he was sentenced to five years of probation, one year of psychological counseling and two years of drug and alcohol abuse counseling. Jones was also required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and prohibited from possessing any pornography.

“This concludes a really painful chapter in my life,” Jones told members of the media assembled outside the courthouse. “I am sorry that this incident was allowed to occur. Such an event has never happened before and it will never happen again.”

Jones’ attorney went on to stress that the sex offenses were limited to photographs and that Jones never made any physical contact with the victim.

His legal issues weren’t over with the plea deal and probation, however.

In July 2004, Jones was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in Sarasota, Fla., the Herald Tribune reported. Jones had moved to a different apartment and didn’t register within the required 48 hours of relocating.

In 2010, Jones was arrested again for failing to register as a sex offender, this time in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty that September, E! News reported, and was sentenced to 250 hours of community service and three years of probation.

What was Jeffrey Jones’ last movie?

In 2007, Jones appeared in the golf comedy Who’s Your Caddy? and had an uncredited cameo in Hemingway & Gellhorn in 2012. He also starred in 2014’s 10.0 Earthquake and as himself in the 2016 short 7 Days.

Jones starred as A.W. Merrick in Deadwood from 2004 to 2006 and reprised the role for the HBO movie based on the series in 2019, marking his last screen appearance to date.

Where is Jeffrey Jones now?

Jones has continued acting on stage, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 2015, he appeared in an L.A. production of 63 Trillion. Three years later, he starred in The Cocktail Hour at Coyote StageWorks in Palm Springs, Calif.

The Coachella Valley Independent reported that Jones had fallen ill ahead of the show’s opening and had to rely on his script — and reading glasses — to get through the performance.

In September 2023, Jones, who booked an appearance at Rhode Island Comic Con, was dropped from the event after organizers received complaints, WBSM reported. After posting a flyer that included a photo of Jones, organizers wrote on Facebook that Jones had been vetted and removed from the lineup months earlier.

“Unfortunately, it was left up on our scheduling calendar and was mistakenly posted,” they wrote.