Ron Cephas Jones

Ron Cephas Jones, who was of African American heritage, was born on January 8, 1957.^{[citation needed]}

He grew up in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended John F. Kennedy High School and then Ramapo College.^[1] While at Ramapo, Jones had originally intended to study jazz under director Arnold Jones (no relation), but changed majors to theater after getting the lead in a production of Cinderella Ever After his sophomore year.^[2][3] He graduated from Ramapo in 1978.^[2]

After graduation he moved to Los Angeles, California and drove a bus for the Southern California Rapid Transit District for the following four years.^[2] He then moved around for some years, living in San Francisco, Arizona, and New Orleans, before returning to New York City in 1985.^[2]

After returning to New York in 1985, Jones began spending time at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan's East Village.^[3] During that time, he performed in a play based on the Billie Holiday song "Don't Explain".^[2] His performance caught the attention of a casting director, which led to Jones being offered the lead role in the Tazewell Thompson production of the Cheryl West play Holiday Heart in 1994.^[2] Jones performed in several theatrical productions with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois; appeared as the title character of Shakespeare's Richard III with The Public Theater in New York City, New York, as well as other Off Broadway productions. Jones served as an understudy or standby in several Broadway theatre productions. In 2014 Jones starred as Prometheus in Prometheus Bound directed by Travis Preston through the CalArts Center for New Performance.^[4] In 2022, he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in the Lynn Nottage play Clyde's.

His film credits include his most memorable role as Harlem drug dealer, Rich Porter's uncle "Ice" aka Johnny "Apple" Porter in the 2002 Roc-A-Fella produced film 'Paid In Full' as well as He Got Game (1998), Sweet and Lowdown (1999), Half Nelson (2006), and Across The Universe (2007). In television, he appeared as Reverend Lowdown in the episode "The Goat Rodeo" of the 2013 television series Low Winter Sun and he played Romero, a member of "fsociety" in the 2015 television series Mr. Robot.^[5] He also appeared on season 3 of the show Banshee as Philadelphia kingpin Mr. Frazier. He played Harlem chess master Bobby Fish in season 1 of Marvel's Luke Cage. Jones appeared on the NBC drama series This Is Us as William Hill, the biological father of Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown). Jones received critical acclaim for his performance on This Is Us and received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2018 and 2020 for his performance.

Jones appeared in the Hulu teen drama series Looking for Alaska, as well as the Apple TV+ crime drama series Truth Be Told, opposite Octavia Spencer, Lizzy Caplan and Aaron Paul.

Jones and British-born jazz singer Kim Lesley had a daughter, actress Jasmine Cephas Jones^[6] (born 1989).

Jones had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and underwent a double lung transplant in 2020.^[7] He died on August 19, 2023, at the age of 66, from what his agent termed "a long-standing pulmonary issue".^[8]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Murder Magic	Buddy Dixon
1996	Naked Acts[9]	Joel
1998	He Got Game	Prison Guard Bowell
1999	A Day in Black and White[9]	Mustafa
	Sweet and Lowdown	Alvin
2001	Little Senegal	Westley
2002	Paid in Full	Ice
2004	Anonymous	Frank	Short film
	The Ballad of Pinto Red	Earl House
2005	Preaching to the Choir	Pug
2006	Half Nelson	Lloyd Dickson
2007	Across the Universe	Black Panther
2010	Ashes[9]	Floyd
2012	Watching TV with the Red Chinese	Little
2013	Titus	Titus
2014	Glass Chin[9]	Ray Ellington
	National Theatre Live: Of Mice and Men	Crooks
2018	Dog Days[9]	Walter
	Venom	Jack	Uncredited
	The Holiday Calendar[9]	Gramps
2019	Dolemite Is My Name	Ricco

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	New York Undercover[9]	James Farris	Episode: "Blue Boy"
	Law & Order[9]	Frank Doyle	Episode: "Slave"
1997		Roland Books	Episode: "Entrapment"
	NYPD Blue	Jess	Episode: "All‘s Well That Ends Well"
1999	Double Platinum	Jean Claude	Television film
2003	Word of Honor	Ramon Detonq
2006	Law & Order: Criminal Intent[9]	Reggie Banks	Episode: "Dramma Giocoso"
2008	A Raisin in the Sun[9]	Willy Harris	Television film
2012	NYC 22	Arthur Anson	Episode: "Schooled"
2013	Low Winter Sun	Reverend Lowdown	3 episodes
2014	The Blacklist[9]	Dr. James Covington	Episode: "Dr. James Covington (No. 89)"
2015	Banshee	Frazier	2 episodes
2015–2016	Mr. Robot[9]	Romero	8 episodes
2016–2017	The Get Down	Winston Kipling	5 episodes
2016–2018	Luke Cage	Bobby Fish	13 episodes
2016–2022	This Is Us[9]	William "Shakespeare" Hill	Main (season 1), recurring (seasons 2–6); 31 episodes
2019	Looking for Alaska[9]	Dr. Hyde	8 episodes
2019–2023	Truth Be Told[9]	Leander "Shreve" Scoville	28 episodes
2021	Amphibia	Captain Aldo (voice)	Episode: "Barrel's Warhammer"
	Lisey's Story[9]	Professor Dashmiel	Miniseries
2021–2022	Law & Order: Organized Crime	Congressman Leon Kilbride	Recurring (season 2); 8 episodes
2022	Better Things	Ron	Recurring (season 5); 3 episodes
2024	Genius: MLK/X	Elijah Muhammad	Main role; posthumous release[10]

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Video games

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	Madden NFL 19	Earl Coates	Story mode, "Longshot Homecoming"

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• Lists of actors
• List of people from Chicago
• Jasmine Cephas Jones
• List of people from New York City