Toby Jones facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Toby Jones OBE
Jones in 2022
Born	Toby Edward Heslewood Jones (1966-09-07) 7 September 1966 (age 58) Hammersmith, London, England
Education	Abingdon School
Alma mater	University of Manchester (1986–1989) L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (1989–1991)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present
Spouse(s)	Karen Jones ​ (m. 2015)​
Children	2
Parent(s)	Freddie Jones (father)

Toby Edward Heslewood Jones (born 7 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 to 1991, Jones trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020, he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.

Jones made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama Orlando in 1992. He appeared in minor roles in films such as Les Misérables (1998), Ever After (1998), Finding Neverland (2005), and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005). He portrayed Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous (2006). He has since acted in Amazing Grace (2006), The Painted Veil (2006), W. (2008), Frost/Nixon (2008), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Berberian Sound Studio (2012), Dad's Army (2016), Journey's End (2017), and Empire of Light (2022).

Jones is also known for his voice roles as Dobby in the Harry Potter films (2002–2010), Aristides Silk in The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Owl in Disney's Christopher Robin (2018). He is also known for his blockbuster roles as Claudius Templesmith in The Hunger Games franchise (2012–2013), Arnim Zola in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Mr. Eversoll in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Basil Shaw in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

Jones's television credits include Doctor Who (2010), Julian Fellowes's Titanic miniseries (2012), MCU's Agent Carter (2015), Sherlock (2017) and What If...? (2021) and Wayward Pines (2015–2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO television film The Girl (2012) and won a Best Male Comedy BAFTA for his role in Detectorists (2018). In 2024, Jones starred as Alan Bates in the acclaimed series Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a biographical drama about the Horizon Post Office scandal.

Early life

Jones was born in Hammersmith, London to actors Jennifer Jones (née Heslewood) and Freddie Jones. He has two brothers: Rupert, a director, and Casper, also an actor. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School and Abingdon School in Oxfordshire in the 1980s. He studied drama at the University of Manchester from 1986 to 1989, and at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris from 1989 to 1991.

Career

Jones in 2003

Film and television

Jones has appeared in more than 60 films since his first acting role in the 1992 film Orlando. He voiced Dobby in two Harry Potter films: Chamber of Secrets (2002) and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010). He played Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury in the HBO/Channel 4 production Elizabeth I. In 2006, he portrayed Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous. He appeared in the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist in 2007. In 2008, he portrayed Karl Rove in Oliver Stone's W and Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar in Frost/Nixon. He appeared alongside his father in the 2004 film Ladies in Lavender.

Jones appeared in the 2010 episode "Amy's Choice", of Doctor Who, as the Dream Lord, and in the Big Finish Productions series' Dark Eyes (audio drama) as Kotris. He also played the role of Samuel Ratchett in Agatha Christie's Poirot TV Series 12 episode "Murder on the Orient Express". In 2011, he played the role of the British spy master Percy Alleline in the adaptation of John Le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Arnim Zola in Captain America: The First Avenger, a role which he reprised in the sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier three years later as well as in a cameo in the TV series Agent Carter the following year. In 2012, he had a leading role in the ITV mini-series Titanic, starred as one of the seven dwarves in Snow White and the Huntsman, played Dr. Paul Shackleton in Red Lights, and Max in Virginia. He also portrayed film director Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO television film The Girl, a role that earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination, as well as his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

In 1998, he appeared as a City businessman in the music video for Gomez's song "Whippin' Piccadilly", from their album Bring It On.

He played Neil Baldwin in the BBC drama Marvellous in 2014. Sam Wollaston, in The Guardian, praised Jones's "lovely, very human, performance", one that earned him his second British Academy Television Award nomination. From 2014, he appeared in the BBC Four television series Detectorists, for which he received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2016 before winning the award in 2018.

In 2015, Jones played the part of Roger Yount, a banker, in the three-part BBC series Capital based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name. Discussing working with Jones on Capital, writer Peter Bowker said, "I think Toby is a genius and thought that long before I worked with him. He always wants to know a character's needs, and what's beneath those needs. Then he takes all that material and somehow embeds it into the character and physically inhabits the character, so that you never think he's playing the character. It's fascinating to watch him close up. He carries the emotional complexities in every tiny gesture that his character makes so that you immediately can see what his character is like. A character like Roger is full of contradictions, a city banker with an air of entitlement but also a little insecurity picking away at him. Toby can portray that in his walk alone. That's what's great about him, he can portray cold he can portray warm and he can portray both of those things at once."

He played Captain Mainwaring in the film Dad's Army, released in February 2016. In July, of the same year he starred as the eponymous agent Verloc in the BBC's The Secret Agent, a three-part television adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel.

In 2017, he portrayed Culverton Smith in "The Lying Detective", an episode of the BBC crime drama Sherlock. In 2018, he played the dinosaur auctioneer Mr. Eversoll in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth instalment of the Jurassic Park series. In the same year, Jones voiced Owl in Disney's live-action Christopher Robin.

In 2018, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford Brookes University.

In 2024, Jones played Alan Bates in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a dramatisation of the British Post Office scandal.

Radio and audiobooks

In 2003 Jones played the part of Lord Brideshead in a BBC Radio adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. Jones voiced the title character in the 2005 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Oblomov. He also read the 2009 Radio 4 adaptation of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. He played Inspector Goole in the 2010 BBC Radio adaptation of An Inspector Calls. Since 2013 Jones has been the voice of the lead character, Joey Oldman in the BBC Radio 4 series The Corrupted, an adaptation of the G. F. Newman novel Crime and Punishment. On 2 December 2012 he played Napoleon Bonaparte in Anthony Burgess's Napoleon Rising on Radio 3. In 2013 he played Kotris in the award-winning Doctor Who audio play, Dark Eyes, and read an abridged version of "The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry for the BBC. In 2020 he portrayed Falstaff in BBC Radio 3's Henry IV, Part 1.

In 2021, Jones recorded the audiobook versions of John Le Carré's final novel Silverview for Penguin Audio and, for Harper Audio, the seminal dystopian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin in a translation by Bela Shayevich.

Stage

In 2001, he starred in the London West End comedy The Play What I Wrote, directed by Kenneth Branagh. His comic turn as Arthur earned him the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the play moved to Broadway in 2003.

In 2009, he returned to the stage in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre, Parlour Song at the Almeida Theatre, and The First Domino at Brighton Festival Fringe. In 2011, he played J. M. W. Turner in The Painter at the Arcola Theatre. Jones starred as Stanley in the 2018 revival of The Birthday Party at The Harold Pinter Theatre. In 2020, he starred in the title role in the Conor McPherson adaptation of Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

Personal life

On The Graham Norton Show, Jones said that he and his wife Karen were together for 26 years before they married in 2015. They have two daughters.

Jones was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Selected filmography

Film

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Orlando	Valet
1993	Dropping the Baby	Babyman	Short film
1994	Triphony	Man at Fire
1997	Numbertime Time	Tim
1998	Cousin Bette	Man in Café des Artistes
	Les Misérables	Door keeper
	Ever After	Royal page
1999	Simon Magus	Buchholz
	The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc	English judge
2000	Hotel Splendide	Kitchen boy
	The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz	Civil servant
2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Dobby	Voice
2004	Ladies in Lavender	Hedley
	Finding Neverland	Smee
2005	Mrs Henderson Presents	Gordon
2006	Infamous	Truman Capote
	The Sickie	Douglas Knott
	The Painted Veil	Waddington
2007	Amazing Grace	Duke of Clarence
	Nightwatching	Gerard Dou
	The Mist	Ollie Weeks
	St Trinian's	Bursar
2008	City of Ember	Bardon Snode
	W.	Karl Rove
	Frost/Nixon	Swifty Lazar
2009	Creation	Thomas Huxley
	St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold	Bursar
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	Dobby	Voice
	Virginia	Max
2011	The Rite	Father Matthew
	Your Highness	Julie
	Captain America: The First Avenger	Arnim Zola
	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	Percy Alleline
	My Week with Marilyn	Arthur P. Jacobs
	The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn	Aristides Silk	Motion capture
2012	The Hunger Games	Claudius Templesmith
	Red Lights	Paul Shackleton
	Snow White and the Huntsman	Coll
	Berberian Sound Studio	Gilderoy
2013	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Claudius Templesmith
	Leave to Remain	Mr Nigel
	Hardwire	Max	Short film
2014	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Arnim Zola
	Muppets Most Wanted	Museo del Prado Guard No. 2	Cameo
	Serena	Sheriff McDowell
	By the Gun	Jerry
2015	Tale of Tales	King of Highhills
	By Our Selves	John Clare
	The Man Who Knew Infinity	John Littlewood
2016	Dad's Army	Captain Mainwaring
	Anthropoid	Jan Zelenka-Hajský
	Morgan	Simon Ziegler
	Kaleidoscope	Carl
2017	Atomic Blonde	Eric Gray
	Happy End	Lawrence Bradshaw
	The Entertainer	Paul Limp	Short film
	Journey's End	Private Mason
	The Snowman	Investigator Svenson
	Zoo	Security Guard Charlie
2018	Naked Normandy	Newman
	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom	Mr. Eversoll
	Christopher Robin	Owl	Voice
	Out of Blue	Professor Ian Strammi
2019	First Cow	Chief Factor
2020	The Last Thing He Wanted	Paul Schuster
	Archive	Vincent Sinclair
2021	Infinite	Bryan Porter
	The Electrical Life of Louis Wain	Sir William Ingram
	A Boy Called Christmas	Father Topo
2022	A Moral Man	Philip	Short film
	The Wonder	Dr. McBrearty
	Empire of Light	Norman
	The Pale Blue Eye	Dr. Daniel Marquis
2023	Tetris	Robert Stein
	Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny	Basil Shaw
	The Canterville Ghost	The Reverend Chasuble	Voice
2024	The Instigators	Alan Flynn
TBA	The Actor	TBA	Post-production
	Mr Burton	Mr Burton	Post-production
	Flavia	TBA	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Lovejoy	Sgt. Protheroe	Episode: "Pig in a Poke"
1994	Cadfael	Griffin	Episode: "The Sanctuary Sparrow"
1995	Performance	Wart	Episode: "Henry IV"
1996	Death of a Salesman	Waiter	Television film
1998	Out of Hours	Martin Styles	6 episodes
1999	Underground	Beast	Television film
	Aristocrats	Ste Fox	4 episodes
1999–2000	Midsomer Murders	Dan Peterson	4 episodes
2001	The Way We Live Now	Squercum	Episode #1.4
	Victoria & Albert	Edward Oxford	2 episodes
	In Love and War	Bolo	Television film
	Love or Money	Phil	Television film
2002	15 Storeys High	Obsessive-compulsive man	Episode: "Ice Queen"
2005	Coming Up	Simon	Episode: "Loving Ludmilla"
2005	Elizabeth I	Robert Cecil	2 episodes
2007	The Old Curiosity Shop	Daniel Quilp	Television film
	The Last Detective	Bennett	Episode: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Willesden"
2010	Mo	Dr Mark Glaser	Television film
	Doctor Who	The Dream Lord	Episode: "Amy's Choice"
	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Samuel Ratchett / Lanfranco Cassetti	Episode: "Murder on the Orient Express"
2011	Christopher and His Kind	Gerald Hamilton	Television film
2012	Titanic	John Batley	4 episodes
	The Girl	Alfred Hitchcock	HBO/BBC Television film
2013	Murder on the Victorian Railway	Narrator	Voice; Television film
	Words of Everest	Jan Morris	Television documentary
2014	Marvellous	Neil Baldwin	Television film
2014–17, 2022	Detectorists	Lance Stater	20 episodes
2015–16	Wayward Pines	David Pilcher/Dr. Jenkins	15 episodes
2015	Agent Carter	Arnim Zola	Episode: "Valediction"
	Capital	Roger Yount	3 episodes
	The Last Days Of...	Narrator	Voice; 4 episodes
2016	The Secret Agent	Anton Verloc	3 episodes
	The Witness for the Prosecution	John Mayhew	2 episodes
	Civil	Otis O'Dell	Pilot
2017	Sherlock	Culverton Smith	Episode: "The Lying Detective"
2019	Don't Forget the Driver	Pete Green	6 episodes; also co-creator and writer
	The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance	The Librarian	Voice; 6 episodes
2021	What If...?	Arnim Zola	Voice; 3 episodes: "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?", "What If... Ultron Won?", "What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?"
	Danny Boy	Phil Shiner	Television film
	Worzel Gummidge	The Bonfire Night Committee	Episode: "Guy Forks"
2022	Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts	Himself	HBO Max special
	My Grandparents' War	Himself / presenter	Episode: "Toby Jones"
	The English	Sebold Cusk	Episode: "What You Want & What You Need"
2023	The Long Shadow	DCS Dennis Hoban	Lead role
2024	Mr Bates vs The Post Office	Alan Bates	4 episodes
TBA	A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story	John Bickford

Theatre

Theme park attractions

Awards and nominations

Film

Television

Theatre

See also

In Spanish: Toby Jones para niños

• List of Old Abingdonians