Dean Jones was a Disney star who appeared in all of the movies I watched as a kid. He was a familiar face by the time I was 7 years old. Herbie the Love Bug, I mean, come on. That Darn Cat with Hayley Mills! I was obsessed with Hayley Mills as a child, even though her heyday came before I was born (the awesome Flame Trees of Thika notwithstanding, which I watched with my parents). I wanted to BE Hayley Mills. A child star. I adored That Darn Cat!
The New York Times has a very nice obituary.
But I will love Dean Jones forever for his stunning version of “Being Alive” from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company. First of all, the song itself is an anthem of hope and pain and striving. The lyrics are too piercing to bear, if you have experienced loneliness (as we all have). The yearning for someone to be there, to love you, to experience “being alive” with you. The song has that classic Sondheim difficulty: it’s “talk-y”, the lyrics are conversational and yet poetic. There’s not a typical rhyme scheme. You have to really act it. Otherwise it won’t come off, it’ll just sit there as a melody. There is no way to fake this one. No way to phone it in. Your awesome singer pipes will not save you if you can’t FILL the song. Dean Jones’ version, captured forever in the cast recording, is definitive, and the one we all know. Young Raul Esperanza came along in the Broadway revival and breathed new life into the song, approaching it with the same passion and emotional understanding that Dean Jones had. We heard it anew.
There’s a fascinating documentary about the recording of the cast album for Company in 1970. The most famous bit is Elaine Stritch working on “Ladies Who Lunch” in the recording booth, and putting herself through hell to get it right. (If you haven’t seen it, look it up. It’s on Youtube. It is one of the clearest portrayals of true PROCESS that I have ever seen in my life.)
But the clip above is also excellent. It’s the same thing, only it’s Dean Jones, working on “Being Alive” in the booth, with his cast members.
Rest in peace, Dean Jones.
It’s impossible to overstate what he meant to so many of us who grew up in the sixties and seventies and were constantly aware of the disintegration going on around us. Somehow it was hard to believe things would really fall apart if Dean Jones was around. However frazzled he got on screen he was still a beacon of sanity. And I’ll always think of That Darn Cat! as the consummate Disney movie because it had him AND Hayley. Can’t beat that.
// However frazzled he got on screen he was still a beacon of sanity. //
Ha!!! Love that: so true!!
Interesting your perspective from the 60s and 70s. I was a kid so I had no idea about any of that – but I love that he provided some counterpoint to the fracturing going on.
Thanks for the clip. Now my day is a Sondheim day, and that’s an interesting way to be.
Also– one of the clearest portrayals of PROCESS that I enjoy are the Stones’ sequences in Sympathy for the Devil.
Yes, those are excellent!!
Now I’m trying to think of more.
This is fictional but that one dance rehearsal in ALL THAT JAZZ when Joe Gideon keeps yelling at that one dancer – until she finally “gets it” is a pure example of process and what it actually looks like sometimes.
Very sad to read of his demise. Dean Jones was part of my childhood starring in many films I enjoyed and who came across as an easily likeable and friendly character. My respects to his surviving family.
I agree – he was very relateable, a loved familiar face.
Ahh, love the joy of performance in that clip and how enthusiastically the performers supported each other. Those smiles! We watched a lot of Dean Jones movies this year and my crush on him is just as strong as ever. He contributed so much beauty to the world.
KC – the other performers in that clip, yes totally – just totally supportive and THERE.
I have to say, I am absolutely loving the affection for him in these comments (and elsewhere.) He deserves it.
Speaking to the process thing…I don’t know if you saw the James Brown biopic last year, but there was plenty of that in there as well. Much like Love and Mercy it was nonlinear and had plenty of focus on actual music-making. I haven’t seen the NWA pic yet, but it seemed from your review that they had some similar scenes there. It’s almost like folks have finally figured out that actually making music might be a really significant part of a musician’s life. Who knew?
And yes, that Sondheim clip is lovely, especially for those of us who weren’t aware of that side of Dean Jones…another reminder that we all contain multitudes.
“Process” is one of the hardest things to portray. Non-artists have a hard time getting it. John Cassavetes’ Opening Night is an entire movie about process. One of the best movies about acting I’ve ever seen.
Hayley Mills obsession as a kid – me too!! Total girl crush. What was it about her? I still haven’t figured it out, although I think she was quite talented as so many of the Disney kids were and are.
Thanks for this nice obit, Sheila. I had no idea Dean Jones did any kind of musical theatre and I’ll have to check out the clip.
Amy – Hayley, I know, right? It was Parent Trap that hooked me – her outfits, her British accent, her adorability and spunkiness … she was just so appealing to me as a kid. I looked at her and felt wish-fulfillment and envy and admiration. A lot of child stars didn’t make me feel that way but she did.
I am so glad to introduce this iconic performance of Dean Jones’ then – musical people revere it so much that there was almost a sense of nervousness/suspicion when the Company revival came along. Along with Elaine Stritch and all the others: could these new whippersnappers EVER compete with that first album?
This song means a lot to my group of friends for some reason. We were obsessed with it in college when we were super-young – but it seemed to speak to a strength and a hope and an expression that maybe we thought would be useful to us later. The grown-up world of desire and love and fear and all the rest. It’s all there in his performance. Stunning!!
Sheila-thank you so much for that clip! I had no idea that Dean Jones was on Broadway, and I loved that song. Also, the expression on his face when he finished.
I was sad to hear of his death, too. Like the other posters, he was a big part of my childhood, the steady center of so many Disney movies.
Barb – It’s a sad story but Dean Jones actually didn’t make it to Broadway with the show. His life was falling apart. But that’s even more reason to be thankful that he was part of the recording of those songs! His performance captured for all time!!
Ah–
That is sad, and maybe explains the expression more accurately. I thought it was mostly from being wrapped up in the song and then anxious as to what the producer thought.
The clip is so deep, right? His life was falling apart while he was recording this song – and I think he put all of that into his performance. Amazing!
It’s worth remembering that Dean Jones was under such stress, with his own marriage falling apart, that he dropped out of the Company cast. He agreed to stick around for the opening and the original cast recording. What a performance! There’s no currently available DVD of the hour-long Pennebaker documentary (check the price of a second-hand copy on Amazon) but you can get it from Netflix DVD.
Saint Russell – thanks for the tip about Netflix. I saw the doc a long time ago and the section with Elaine Stritch in the booth is one of the most memorable things I’ve ever seen in my life. Her dedication, her moments of self-hatred, rage, and then finally – the performance came. But she needed to go through all THAT before she could get there. Just amazing!!