Character actor Claude Earl Jones passed away late last month in Claremont, California due to complications from dementia, we’ve learned this week. The actor was 86 years old.
Horror fans will surely remember Claude Earl Jones for his role as Lt. Leslie Chapham in Brian Yuzna’s Bride of Re-Animator (pictured above), a police lieutenant who Dr. Herbert West kills and then brings back from the dead. The actor also starred in two horror films earlier in the decade: 1981’s TV movie Dark Night of the Scarecrow and that same year’s Evilspeak.
Claude Earl Jones also made appearances on countless big time television shows, including “Kojak,” “Police Story,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” “The Greatest American Hero,” “T.J. Hooker,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Buffalo Bill,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “The A-Team,” “Who’s the Boss?,” “Matlock,” “21 Jump Street,” “Baywatch” and “Dallas.”
He also starred in the 1988 film Miracle Mile.
The Hollywood Reporter’s obituary notes that Claude Earl Jones is survived by his wife Nancy Jones, sons Steve and Tawn, daughter Julie, and stepdaughter Beth.