This Saturday, This Is Us actor Ron Cephas Jones died at the age of 66. His representative released a statement revealing that the cause of his death was “long-standing lung problems”.
“Throughout her career, anyone who was fortunate enough to know her experienced her warmth, beauty, generosity, kindness and heart,” her representative said in the statement.
The role of William Hill, the biological father of Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown) on This Is Us, made him famous worldwide. For his performance in the series, he received the Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series award in 2018 and 2020.
Who was Ron Cephas Jones?
Ron Cephas Jones was born in 1957 in Paterson, New Jersey. He enrolled in jazz at Ramapo College, but ultimately decided to enroll in theatre. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles and although he first made a living as a bus driver, when he returned to New York in 1985, he took part in a play based on the Billie Holiday song “Don’t Explain”.
Her participation in that play attracted the attention of a director who offered her a starring role in the play Holiday Heart. Jones then began a series of collaborations with the Steppenwolf Theater Company, and starred in Richard III at The Public Theater and several Off-Broadway and commercial productions.
In 1998 she made her film debut as part of the cast of Spike Lee’s film, You Will Not Forgive, alongside Denzel Washington, Milla Jovovich and Rosario Dawson. He was also in The Great Lover (1999), starring alongside Sean Penn, Anthony LaPaglia, Samantha Morton, and Uma Thurman. His last film was 2018’s Marvel’s Venom Tank.
He took part in The Other Face of Nelson (2006), Through the Universe (2007). On television he got his first role as Reverend Lowdown in the 2013 episode “The Great Rodeo” of the series Low Winter Sun. In turn, he participated in Mr. Robot and was part of the cast of the series Banshee and played the role. Fiction based on Bobby Fish, Marvel hero in the first season of Luke Cage.
On the other hand, he was part of the cast of the series There Must Be Told (2019/2023) alongside Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul and Lizzy Caplan; Lisi’s Story (2021), with Julianne Moore; New York Undercover, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Blacklist, The Get Down, Better Things, and Law & Order: Organized Crime and the television film Word of Honor (2003), with Don Johnson and Gene Tripplehorn.
Cephas Jones and British jazz singer Kim Leslie became parents to Jasmine Cephas Jones in 1989. The actor’s daughter won her first Emmy win in 2020 for outstanding performance in a short-form comedy or drama series.