Jessie Jones obit

Jessie Jones Dies: TV Actor & Prolific Playwright Was 75

 

She was not on the list.

Jessie Jones, a veteran TV character actor who guested on such popular series as Murphy Brown, Newhart and Night Court and also was a prolific comedy playwright, has died. She was 75.

Her writing partner Jamie Wooten told Deadline that Jones died March 20 in Washington, D.C., after a long illness.

Born on August 21, 1950, in the Texas Panhandle, Jones won a high school essay/speech contest before graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. She got her screen start in the late 1980s with guest roles on TV’s Newhart and Hooperman and continued to work regularly during the ’90s. Her credits include a number of the era’s top series including on Night Court, Designing Women, Perfect Strangers, Grace Under Fire, Melrose Place, Judging Amy, Cold Case, Who’s the Boss? and others.

She had a brief but memorable role in the first Season 3 episode of Murphy Brown as Mrs. Betty Hooley, a woman picked “at random, right out of the phone book” to be interviewed on-air by FYI host Murphy (Candice Bergen) about the challenges facing an American family in the 1990s. But the stunt goes south as Wooley turns out to be an unabashed bigot who embarrasses the show and gets scolded by the host.

Jones had a series-regular role on The WB interfaith-romance sitcom You’re the One, playing the mother of co-lead Cynthia Geary. But the series about a Southern woman and New York man didn’t click and aired only two episodes in April 1998. Jones also appeared in multiple 1995 episodes of the Saturday morning ABC comedy Fudge during its two-year run.

Along with bit roles in a handful of features, Jones also appeared in several TV movies including The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, Caught in the Act, My Brother’s Keeper and The Rescue of Baby Jessica starring Patty Duke and Beau Bridges.

By the mid-2000s, Jones had pivoted to a prolific second career writing plays. Among her best-known works is the Southern-funeral comedy Dearly Departed, which premiered Off Broadway and was produced on multiple U.S. regional and community stages. The show was the source for Kingdom Come, a film adaptation from Fox Searchlight that featured an ensemble cast led by LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton and Whoopi Goldberg.

Along with her partners Wooten and Nicholas Hope, Jones also co-wrote more than two dozen other plays, specializing in Southern-flavored comedies. All published by Concord Theatricals, their Jones Hope Wooten works include such titles as The Sweet Delilah Swim Club, The Red Velvet Cake War, Christmas Belles and The Savannah Sipping Society. The trio’s works have been performed in every U.S. state and more than 25 other countries. Wooten said Jones was the most-produced female American playwright.

Jones is survived by sisters Ellen and Laura, brother-in-law Jim McCarthy, niece Margaret McCarthy and nephews Tommy McCarthy, Todd Hyso and Paul Hyso, along with grand-nieces and cousins. The family asked that donations in her memory be made to Planned Parenthood.

Actress

Cold Case (2003)

Cold Case

7.7

TV Series

Tiffany - 2005

2005

1 episode

 

Judging Amy (1999)

Judging Amy

7.1

TV Series

2004

1 episode

 

Sherry Stringfield in Border Line (1999)

Border Line

4.6

TV Movie

Berger's Secretary

1999

 

You're the One (1998)

You're the One

TV Series

Mary Chase MetcalfMary Chase

1998

3 episodes

 

Kevin Connolly, Nikki Cox, and Geoff Pierson in Unhappily Ever After (1995)

Unhappily Ever After

6.9

TV Series

Mrs. Lupkin

1997

1 episode

 

Melrose Place (1992)

Melrose Place

6.0

TV Series

Wife O Blue Blood

1997

1 episode

 

Vanessa Angel, John Asher, and Michael Manasseri in Weird Science (1994)

Weird Science

6.8

TV Series

Nurse AdderReceptionist

1996

2 episodes

 

Caroline in the City (1995)

Caroline in the City

6.3

TV Series

Receptionist

1996

1 episode

 

The Crew (1995)

The Crew

7.3

TV Series

Passenger

1995

1 episode

 

Grace Under Fire (1993)

Grace Under Fire

6.4

TV Series

Woman

1995

1 episode

 

Fudge (1995)

Fudge

7.0

TV Series

Jean Tubman

1995

4 episodes

 

John Lithgow in My Brother's Keeper (1995)

My Brother's Keeper

5.8

TV Movie

Short Mother

1995

 

Gregory Harrison and Leslie Hope in Caught in the Act (1993)

Caught in the Act

5.7

TV Movie

Bank Receptionist

1993

 

Steve Buscemi, Ned Beatty, John Glover, Sam Sorbo, and Miriam Margolyes in Ed and His Dead Mother (1993)

Ed and His Dead Mother

6.0

Jury foreperson

1993

 

The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993)

The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom

6.6

TV Movie

Mother

1993

 

Laura San Giacomo and Elizabeth Perkins in For Their Own Good (1993)

For Their Own Good

6.3

TV Movie

Mrs. Gates

1993

 

Backfield in Motion (1991)

Backfield in Motion

5.2

TV Movie

Ms. Marsh

1991

 

Judith Light in Wife, Mother, Murderer (1991)

Wife, Mother, Murderer

6.6

TV Movie

Maggie

1991

 

Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits in Switch (1991)

Switch

5.8

Arnold's Secretary

1991

 

Alyssa Milano, Tony Danza, Katherine Helmond, Danny Pintauro, and Judith Light in Who's the Boss? (1984)

Who's the Boss?

6.6

TV Series

Mrs. Gallagher

1991

1 episode

 

Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker in Perfect Strangers (1986)

Perfect Strangers

7.2

TV Series

Shiela

1990

2 episodes

 

Annie Potts, Delta Burke, Jean Smart, and Dixie Carter in Designing Women (1986)

Designing Women

7.3

TV Series

Marshal

1990

1 episode

 

Candice Bergen in Murphy Brown (1988)

Murphy Brown

6.9

TV Series

Mrs. Betty Hooley

1990

1 episode

 

Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase (1990)

Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase

6.1

TV Movie

Scrub Nurse

1990

 

Harry Anderson, Selma Diamond, Ellen Foley, John Larroquette, Charles Robinson, and Richard Moll in Night Court (1984)

Night Court

7.7

TV Series

Ginny

1990

1 episode

 

Jury Duty: The Comedy (1990)

Jury Duty: The Comedy

4.5

TV Movie

Claire

1990

 

Beau Bridges and Patty Duke in Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure (1989)

Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure

6.5

TV Movie

Dr. Fitzpatrick

1989

 

Newhart (1982)

Newhart

7.8

TV Series

Janet

1989

1 episode

 

Hooperman (1987)

Hooperman

7.0

TV Series

1989

1 episode

 

Writer

Tamala Jones, Holly Robinson Peete, Edafe, James Lesure, D.W. Moffett, and Dedee Pfeiffer in For Your Love (1998)

For Your Love

7.1

TV Series

written by

2002

1 episode

 

Teacher's Pet (2000)

Teacher's Pet

6.2

TV Series

written by

2001–2002

2 episodes

 

Kingdom Come (2001)

Kingdom Come

5.6

play "Dearly Departed"screenplay

2001