Cherry Jones

Born: 21 November 1956
Where: Paris, Tennessee, USA

Well known as a premiere theatre actress and an advocate for gay rights, Jones has also appeared in a number of high profile films.

She spent the early years of her professional career performing in a wide range of plays. After she moved to New York, she acted in numerous Broadway productions. Her performance as the lonely heroine in the 1995 production of The Heiress earned Jones several awards, including a Tony.

In the 1980's, Jones started to appear in TV and films taking roles in the comedies Housesitter and A League of Their Own.

After several years of stage work, she returned to films in the independent black comedy Julian Po, and Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer.

Jones played one of the chemical contamination victims in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich. Continuing to take smaller roles in big movies between her stage work, Jones followed with a turn as one of the residents forced to come to grips with the tragic effects of The Perfect Storm, and then appeared in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

In M. Night Shyamalan's spiritual science fiction hit Signs, Jones played the local cop who gets involved in teasing out the meaning of the crop circles in Mel Gibson's corn field.