Ron Cephas Jones, the Emmy-winning actor best known for playing William Hill onThis Is Us, has died. He was 66.
A representative for the actor confirmed Jones’ death to PEOPLE on Saturday: “Beloved and award-winning actor Ron Cephas Jones has passed away at the age of 66 due to a long-standing pulmonary issue.”
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Jones was best known for his role onThis Is Usas William Hill, the biological father of Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown), for which he won aguest acting Emmyin 2018 and another in 2020. That same year, his daughter Jasmine, 34, earned her first Emmy, making the pair the first-ever father-daughter winners in the same year.
TheLaw & Order: Organized Crimestar revealed toThe New York Timesin 2021 that he privately battled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and received a double lung transplant at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in 2020, where he was a patient for almost two months.
According to a June 2022 interview withToday, he said his Tony-nominated performance inClyde’son Broadway motivated him to make a speedy recovery.
“I don’t want to say a miracle, but I was very fortunate. I had great doctors. It still was a very difficult and arduous recovery. I’m recovering for the rest of my life,” Jones told the outlet. “You don’t get new lungs and start running track. It’s a procedure that you have to constantly work on your body. Medication is involved and therapy.”
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He previously recalled toEntertainment Weeklyin May 2022 how his costars and producers helped him through a life-threatening health scare on his final day on set, telling them: “You cats held me when I was struggling and you didn’t let me go. You’ve been there for a very difficult part of my life. I’m a walking miracle.”
“My whole life has been the stage,” Jones said. “The idea of not performing again seemed worse to me than death.”
In addition toThis Is Us, the New Jersey Native appeared inMr. Robot(2015-2016),The Get Down(2016-2017),Luke Cage(2016-2018),Looking For Alaska(2019) andTruth Be Told(2019-2023).
Prior to that, Jones was a member of New York’s Off-BroadwayLAByrinth Theater Company. Among his several theatrical roles was Crooks in Broadway’s 2014 production ofOf Mice and Men.
In December,Deadlinereported that Jones was cast in the fourth installment of the historical anthology seriesGenius: MLK/X. He will portray as Elijah Muhammad, the “powerful, confident and complicated” leader of the Nation of Islam and teacher and mentor of Malcolm X in his last credited role.
source: people.com
