Celebrity3 min(s) read
One Hollywood actor has appeared in more than 150 movies and TV shows over three decades, yet you would likely struggle to recognize him on the street.
Doug Jones has appeared in projects ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hocus Pocus to Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and Star Trek: Discovery.
The reason he remains virtually anonymous despite an impressive filmography is simple: much of his career has been spent buried beneath elaborate makeup, prosthetics, and costumes.
The 66-year-old actor is tall and slender, making him valuable to creature-effects teams looking for someone who can transform into something otherworldly.
Jones started his career in small, background roles such as the zombie Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus.
While many performers might see layers of latex and prosthetics as something that hides their acting, he turned them into his specialty.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, he explained why effects artists have turned to him.
"I'm hired because I'm a tall, skinny guy - with other talents, I hope," he said. "But the creature effects guys love to start with a skinny, long palette, because they can build on it and not make it too bulky."
"I sit there, basically, or I stand there" - and he credits maintaining his lean physique to a "very boring" exercise routine of elliptical machines and light dumbbell lifting, and "the metabolism of a 16-year-old".
Director Guillermo del Toro repeatedly cast Jones in some of the most memorable roles of his career.
He portrayed the amphibious Abe Sapien in Hellboy before taking on two different characters in Pan’s Labyrinth - the Faun and the eerie Pale Man.
The latter went on to win three Academy Awards, including Best Makeup, partly due to his incredible creature designs.
Del Toro has opened up about the rare set of skills required to perform convincingly beneath such extensive effects.
"A creature performer needs to be a very odd combination of [a] marathon runner and a mime, who can express himself through layers and layers of latex and acrylic and silicone," the director told BuzzFeed.
"It’s a very, very rare discipline… [and] there are very, very few that are actual actors, in my opinion, that goes beyond being able to work in a suit or under makeup," he added.
Jones reunited with del Toro for 2017's The Shape of Water. The critically acclaimed film went on to win multiple Academy Awards.
The actor's other film credits include: Batman Returns (1992), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Absentia (2011), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), and The Bye Bye Man (2017).
