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Henry Walton Jones, Sr.

From Indiana Jones Wiki

CHARACTER
Henry Walton Jones, Sr.
Gender Male
Birth December 12[1], 1872
Scotland
Death 1951[1]
Nationality Scottish

Profession(s)

Allegiance(s)

Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Sr. was a professor of medieval literature and expert on Grail lore, and the father of archaeologist Indiana Jones.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Jones presenting his son with Indiana.

Henry Walton Jones[3] was born in Scotland in 1872. He was educated at Oxford, where he developed friendships with classmates Marcus Brody[4] and Richard Medlicot,[5] and was tutored by Helen Seymour.[6] Henry graduated from Oxford in 1893[1] then fell in love with an American woman named Anna. The two married in 1898, and Jones moved his growing family to Princeton, New Jersey, where his son Henry Jones, Jr. was born a year later. Their union also produced a daughter, Susie, but illness took her life early.

[edit] World lecture tour

Jones' scholarly pursuits at Princeton University led to a two-year World lecture tour beginning in May of 1908, for which he would be speaking at various institutes around the world on the topics of the medieval chivalric code and the Holy Grail.[7] Jones brought his wife and son with him, believing the experience to be a once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunity for young Henry Jr. They traveled to England where they hired Miss Seymour as a tutor for Junior. Jones took his family to Egypt,[6] visited a friend in Tangiers,[8] The family travels also included a safari in British East Africa with Theodore Roosevelt.[5] They then traveled around Europe, including stops in Paris, Vienna and Florence. In 1910, the family traveled to Russia, where through his son's misadventures, Henry got to meet Leo Tolstoy and Greece, where Henry spent time teaching Junior about Greek philosophy.[9] They traveled eastward to India and China, where Junior became ill with Typhoid Fever.[10] Soon after Junior recovered, the Jones family returned home.[7] However, Anna developed influenza, which led to her death in May of 1912.[11]

[edit] Returning home

Henry Jones Sr. in 1916.

Following Anna's death, Henry and his son relocated to the city of Moab, Utah,[4] and Henry began work at the Four Corners University in Las Mesas.[7] Henry's relationship with his son had always been difficult, but Anna's untimely death caused him to withdraw even further into his studies, as he became obsessed with the Holy Grail.[4][12] The hobby would take the Joneses around the globe once more in search of information related to the artifact.

By 1916, Jones had resumed his teaching duties at Princeton University, while his son attended high school locally.[13] During spring break, Jones took his son to New Mexico to visit relatives. During the trip, Junior and his cousin Frank found a ride into Mexico,[11] and got caught up in the Mexican Revolution. While in Mexico, Henry Jr. ultimately decided to join the Belgian army in order to participate in the war in Europe, which would later beome known as World War I.[6]

During the war, father and son were severely estranged. The senior Jones never received direct communication from his son, though was able to pass messages through third parties, including Miss Seymour in England,[14] and Professor Levi in Paris.[15] When Henry Jr. returned home in 1919, Henry Sr. finally expressed his anger at Jr. for joining the war, and Jr.'s revelation that he had decided to attend the University of Chicago rather than Princeton further angered Henry. His son then left for Chicago,[9] and they had little contact with each other over the years. When Henry fell upon a journal reference to an Indiana Jones working alongside Chicago's Abner Ravenwood, he was hurt by the adoption of their dog's name, but the professor sent a letter care of Ravenwood in hopes of reaching his son nevertheless.[16]

In 1933, Jones was no longer teaching at Princeton University. Ironically, at that time, his son was[17]. However, Jones Sr. once again held a position there by 1935, and his office was receiving mail on Indiana's behalf while in the South Pacific[18].

[edit] Quest for the Holy Grail

"You call this archaeology?"
―Henry Jones, Sr.[src]

In 1938, Jones was hired by wealthy industrialist Walter Donovan to recover the Holy Grail, after Donovan's acquisition of a Grail tablet. Jones traveled to Venice to search for the tomb of a grail knight, believed to be buried in or near the city. He conducted his research in an old library that was formerly a church. Realizing that his associate Elsa Schneider was actually a Nazi spy, Jones mailed his grail diary to his son, hoping to keep its information from Nazi hands. For hiding his diary from her, Jones was then captured by Nazi agents and taken to Castle Brunwald.

Upon learning of this, Henry Jr. (now known even professionally as "Indiana") traveled to the castle and rescued him from his prison cell. However, Indy was soon captured through the deceit of Dr. Schneider. Henry and Indy then discovered that Donovan was also working for the Nazis. Father and son soon escaped from the castle and traveled to Berlin to recover the grail diary, before heading to Hatay via zeppelin and biplane to find the Canyon of the Crescent Moon outside of Iskenderun and stop the Nazis.

During a Nazi attack, the senior Jones was captured by the German soldiers and placed in a tank along with the captive Marcus Brody. While Jones managed to defeat a soldier in the tank with a pen, Colonel Vogel apprehended Jones. With the tank running toward a cliff edge, Indy, on horseback, managed to save his father and Brody, and leapt off the vehicle before it plummeted into the ravine below. Henry mournfully looked upon the burning wreckage below, regretting his estrangement and distance from his only son; only to have him approach from behind, battered but alive. Tearfully, Henry Senior embraced Junior in a warm and loving hug for the very first time in his adult life, finally mending the wounds caused by his stubborn disapproval so many years ago.

Reaching the Grail Temple, the elder Jones was captured along with Indy, Sallah, and Brody. Donovan shot Henry, Sr. to force Indiana to retrieve the Grail in order to save his father's life. Indy passed through the lethal traps of the Grail Temple, and eventually returned with the Grail, which was used to heal Henry's fatal gunshot. After Dr. Schneider caused the temple to collapse and fell to her death in a chasm trying to reclaim the grail, Henry convinced his son to let the grail go in order to save his son, no longer addressing him as Junior, but instead as Indiana. Reconciled and restored as a family, they escaped the temple with Sallah and Marcus. While he told his son that he had found illumination in the quest for the Grail, he inwardly admitted that he should have stayed to remain as the guardian of the grail, but was too weak.[19]

[edit] Later years

Professor Jones later assisted his son in chasing a pair of artifacts stolen from them by the Nazis. His cooperation proved vital in their recovery.[20] By 1943, Jones had retired from teaching medieval literature.[21]

In March 1945, Jones was a lecturer at the annual Holy Grail lore conference held in Glastonbury, England when he was approached by several men interested in the Spear of Longinus. Realizing that Dieterhoffmann and his son, Seigfried were probably Nazis, he wrote to Indiana, who was supervising a dig in Ireland of the potential danger. Indiana arrived, with his assistant Brendan O'Neal. At Wearyall Hill, the elder Jones explained the lore of the spear, and with the help of Edwina Cheltingham (who ordered Jones to not pick leaves from the Holy Thorn), they realized that the Nazis still needed wood from the Holy Thorn to complete construction of the spear. Hoping to question Seigfried alone, Jones invited the young seeker to meet with him at the Chalice Well. Jones interrupted Seigfried who was having a vision of the Spear, and confronted him about Nazi ambitions for the ancient artifact. Kept from escaping by the younger Jones and O'Neal, Seig professed ignorance, which the elder Jones believed. Dieterhoffmann arrived and captured his son's interrogators. Despite his admiration for Jones' scholarship, Dieterhoffmann ordered them to be killed after revealing the details of his plans. The interruption of a tour of schoolgirls led by Cheltingham allowed Jones, his son, and O'Neal to escape - with part of the spear tip. Later that night, the three saw the mysterious blond woman in the small chapel below the Lady Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey, who commanded that the three must guard the spear. Cheltingham arrived with a car and driver, and gave O'Neal a sprig of the true Holy Thorn.

While escaping to Wales, Jones watched his son avoid a bullet aimed at his chest - deflected by the power of the spear tip. The elder Jones tried to impress their driver, Rebecca Stein, with his knowledge of the Welsh countryside, but she shrugged off his advances since she was only interested in Jewish men. After a flat tire forced them to stop, Jones was captured by Dieterhoffmann when their pursuers caught up to them, and he watched in shock as his son was tied to a rock and thrown from the cliff into a lake. Taken to the ferry at Holyhead by the Nazis, he dove into the water to safety when O'Neal's sudden appearance created a diversion. He retrieved a small sailboat, in which he picked up O'Neal and his son, who had tried and failed to also save Stein. He handled the rudder of the sailboat as they crossed over to Ireland, keeping the boat under control when a mine left by a submarine knocked O'Neal overboard. Helping get O'Neal and his son back into the boat, he noticed that the spear tip pointed the way for them to go. They navigated to Ireland, and sailed up a river, where Jones and O'Neal headed off to the dig site, while Indiana left to rescue Stein.

Dry inside the mound, Jones listened to O'Neal's stories about the Spear of Lugh, a legendary Celtic weapon, and recognized similarities between it and the Spear of Longinus, as described in Le Morte d'Arthur, - and realized with O'Neal that the weapons were one in the same. After Indiana returned with Stein, the Nazis also arrived, and the partially assembled spear was completed when the final piece of the spear tip flew from Dieterhoffmann's pocket to attach to the rest of the spear in O'Neal's hand. The Spear flew around the room, killed a Nazi soldier and the cave started to crumble. When O'Neal stepped on a spiral, which shrieked, Jones recognized it as the Stone of Fal. After the spear hit O'Neal in the chest, Jones stepped forward and seized it, preventing it from causing further harm to O'Neal. As Jones held it up, the sunrise of the equinox shone into the mound, illuminating the spear in his hands. Jones watched as the spear tip appeared to bleed, though his son, not a believer, was unable to see it. As Dieterhoffmann fell dead and Seigfried began praying, Jones dropped of the spear when the mound started to collapse again. Jones helped Stein get O'Neal to safety while his son dragged Seigfried out of the cave. Seig, in a moment of rapture, expired, and Jones quoted a line from The Quest of the Holy Grail regarding Seig's passing.[19]

Framed photo of Henry on his son's desk in 1957.

In 1947, he acted as substitute teacher for his son at Barnett College while his son was away, and he had a hatred of "godless" Communists.[22]

Henry Jones died in 1951, bemoaning that Indiana never settled down. [1]

[edit] Works produced by Henry Jones, Sr.

Professor Jones was the author of several books in the field of medieval history. The success of one or more of his books allowed him to travel on a world tour (1908-1910), giving lectures to his fellow historians.

Some of his works include:

One book, which he wrote, but did not publish, was his Grail Diary.

[edit] Behind the scenes

Henry Jones, Sr. was portrayed by two actors in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Alex Hyde-White played the character briefly during the film's prologue, and his lines were dubbed by Sean Connery, who played the character later in the film. Although Connery is only twelve years older than Harrison Ford, he portrayed Jones Senior as an older man while Ford played a character younger than himself. Connery came up with the idea of Indy and his father both being in a relationship with Elsa, and he originated the line "She talks in her sleep" for Last Crusade. Connery was later asked to reprise the role for a cameo in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but opted out, claiming that he found retirement too enjoyable. In the final film, Indiana looks at a picture of Henry and mentions his death.

Lloyd Owen's portrayal of Jones, Sr.

Lloyd Owen portrayed a younger version of the character in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, imitating Connery's voice and wearing brown contact lenses during the first production. However, during the second production, the TV movies and the new bridging segments, Owen can be seen with his own blue eyes. Lloyd Owen is actually a year younger than Sean Patrick Flanery, who appeared opposite Owen in two episodes of the series. Apart from the fact that Flanery—like Ford—was playing a character younger than himself, it can also be argued that Owen was cast to portray Henry Jones, Sr. at an age corresponding to the nine-year-old Indy as played by Corey Carrier.

The Grail Diary replica mentions that Henry Jones was 45 in an entry dated 1921; however according to the later canon, he would be 49 that year.

In the MMO game RuneScape, Henry Jones Sr. can be seen in the school near the Barbarian Vilage, as "Professor Henry".

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Sources

[edit] References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  2. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 junior novel
  3. ↑ The opening narration to My First Adventure reveals that Henry Jones and his son share the middle name, Walton. This is also the middle name of George Lucas.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "British East Africa, September 1909"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal"
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 [1]
  8. ↑ The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, My First Adventure
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father
  10. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "Peking, March 1910"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Spring Break Adventure
  12. ↑ The Mata Hari Affair
  13. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "Princeton, February 1916"
  14. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "London, May 1916"
  15. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "Paris, October 1916"
  16. ↑ Grail Diary (game documentation)
  17. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone
  18. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom junior novel
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny
  20. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
  21. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead
  22. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

[edit] See also

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