I got through Mushroom Soup Monday without having to post an obit of anyone I'd ever met. Yesterday, we heard about the passing of Richard "Dick" Jones, who was a great star of western (and some non-western) movies…but more impressively, the voice of Pinocchio in the Disney flick with that name. Jones died Monday night after a fall at home in Northridge. He was 87.
He was a kid actor, starting on screen when he was seven, and he had a pretty good career until he hit his forties, the roles started becoming fewer and he decided to get into real estate. I got to chat with him a few times at parties and film festivals and I could never quite get over the fact that I was talking to the star of Pinocchio. No one who met him seemed able to get over that. Still, he was a delightful gentleman with a great laugh and I'm sure sorry I won't get to hear it again.