Ron Cephas Jones, ‘This Is Us’ actor who won 2 Emmys, dies at 66
In Los Angeles Ron Cephas Jones, a seasoned stage performer who received two Emmy nominations for his portrayal of a long-lost father on NBC’s drama series “This Is Us,” who finds forgiveness, has passed away at age 66.
The actor passed away on Saturday night as a result of a chronic lung condition, his agent Kaitlyn Horton told USA TODAY.
Anyone who had the good fortune to know him could feel his warmth, beauty, generosity, kindness, and heart, the statement said. The large viewership of “This Is Us” “was evidence of Ron’s inner beauty and soul.”
Due to chronic obstructive pulmonary illness, Jones underwent a double lung transplant in 2020 and spent about two months in a Los Angeles hospital.
Jones portrayed William “Shakespeare” Hill in “This Is Us,” a biological father whose life is revitalised by his connections to the Pearson family, who are the parents of Randall Pearson, played by Sterling K. Brown.
After Jones’ passing, Brown posted on Instagram that Jones was “one of the most wonderful people the world has ever seen.” “The world has lost some of its brightness. You are cherished, brother. And we will miss you.
Jones had a more prominent role in the early seasons of the show, but she appeared in some capacity in each of the show’s six seasons, which featured time-traveling tales that gave the actors repeated opportunities even after their characters had passed away.
Jones was nominated for two further Emmys and won two for outstanding guest actor in a drama series in 2018 and 2020.
The creator of “This Is Us,” Dan Fogelman, stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Ron was the best of the best—on screen, on stage, and in real life.” What an actor, my God. Since everything he did was flawless, I don’t believe I ever changed a single one of his takes in a cut.
Before and after “This Is Us,” Ron Cephas Jones spent the most of his career in theatre. He continued to perform on Broadway even after his transplant caused him to relearn how to breathe and walk.
Jones stated in a late 2021 interview with The New York Times that “My whole life has been the stage,” and that he had been secretly struggling with respiratory issues ever since he started working on “This Is Us.”
Ron Cephas Jones stated, “The thought of not performing again seemed worse to me than death.”
He was a truck-stop cook in Lynn Nottage’s “Clyde’s” on Broadway, where he received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination.
Jones, a resident of Paterson, New Jersey, earned a degree in theatre from the nearby Ramapo College, where he had originally planned to study jazz but changed his mind during his second year. He travelled the nation in the late 1970s and early 1980s while working as a bus driver in Southern California for a number of years.
He relocated to New York in the middle of the 1980s, where he began hanging out and collaborating at the Nuyorican Poets Café, an important centre for poetry, hip-hop, and the arts.
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