, October 2015 Jones started his career in the television and movie industry as a 1980s
advertising character, "
Mac Tonight". He worked as a
contortionist, saying, "You'd be surprised how many times that comes into play in commercials. They'll want somebody to hold a box of
Tide funny or something. I once squished into a box for a
commercial for relaxed fit jeans." In 1994, he appeared in an episode of
Unsolved Mysteries as Gordon Page Jr., a young man with autism who disappeared from a treatment center in 1991. Although known mostly for his work under
prosthetic makeup, such as the zombie William "Billy" Butcherson in the
Walt Disney Pictures Halloween film
Hocus Pocus, or the
lead spy Morlock in the
2002 remake of the 1960 film
The Time Machine, he has also performed without prosthetics in such films as
Adaptation,
Mystery Men, and
Batman Returns, and indie projects such as
Stefan Haves'
Stalled, AntiKaiser Productions'
Three Lives, Phil Donlon's
A Series of Small Things, and as Cesare in David Fisher's
2005 remake of the 1920 silent classic
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Jones played
Abe Sapien in
Hellboy; the voice was performed by an uncredited
David Hyde Pierce in the first film, but Jones's voice was used in the sequel. Explaining the challenge of working so often in rubber suits and prosthetics, he notes, "I have to make that a part of my being and my physicality and again, acting is a full-body experience and that's a part of it when you're doing a costumed character." In 2005, he worked again with Mexican director
Guillermo del Toro, starring as the Faun in del Toro's multiple-
Academy Award-winning Spanish-language fantasy/horror project ''
Pan's Labyrinth. He also has a secondary role in the film as the Pale Man, a gruesome creature with a penchant for eating children. Working once more under heavy prosthetics in both roles, he was also required to learn large amounts of dialogue in Spanish, although ultimately his voice was redubbed by Pablo Adan. That same year also brought success for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'', the film receiving three awards at the Screamfest Horror Festival in Los Angeles, including the Audience Choice Award. In 2006, Jones appeared in the feature films
The Benchwarmers and
Lady in the Water, and reprised his role as Abe Sapien by voicing the character in the new
Hellboy Animated television project, recording two 75-minute
animated films. In February 2007, Jones's likeness was used for
Nvidia's "Human Head" tech demo. In June 2007, he appeared in
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as the
Silver Surfer, though
Laurence Fishburne provided the character's voice. He reprised his role as Abe Sapien in
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, once more under the direction of del Toro, for which he provided both the voice and body performance. He played two other roles in the film: the Angel of Death and the Chamberlain, both under heavy prosthetics. In 2009, del Toro announced on
BBC Radio that Jones would be playing the monster in his upcoming version of
Frankenstein. In 2007, Jones was disappointed to learn that his voice part of the Silver Surfer had been dubbed by another actor (Fishburne) when the film was released. Upon inquiry, he determined that studio pressure had been imposed in order to add more "names" to the movie. As Jones gained greater clout in the industry, he eventually was able to add a clause to his contracts ensuring that no English dialogue of his characters would be dubbed. Roles that include other languages may be dubbed, however. This came into play in ''Pan's Labyrinth'' – Jones learned enough Spanish to voice his characters. Still, the decision was made to use a native speaker in order to access the language's nuances adequately. Jones starred as himself in
Sockbaby 4, the fourth installment of the Internet
martial arts comedy series
Sockbaby. Jones appeared in the French-language film
Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), written and directed by French comic book author
Joann Sfar and produced by Universal Europe. Jones played La Gueule ("The Mug"), the grotesque fantasy muse and malicious doppelganger who teases, guides, and accompanies
Serge Gainsbourg throughout his life. He was fitted with prosthetics designed and created by the Academy Award-winning Spanish FX shop DDT Efectos Especiales, with whom he had already worked on ''Pan's Labyrinth''; the FX technicians requested specifically that Jones be given the role of the Mug creature, due to his ability to perform (without complaining) In January 2010, Jones signed a book deal with Medallion Press to model a nonfiction comedic coffee table book called
Mime Very Own Book, co-authored by Adam Mock and Scott Allen Perry and photographed by Eric Curtis. The book was due for publication in December 2011. Jones plays Dr. Henry Vataber in the web series
Universal Dead. In late June 2010, it was announced that
Universal Dead would be made into a feature film. He appeared in the independent film
The Candy Shop, a "modern fairy tale" shedding light upon child sex trafficking, created by the American film studio Whitestone Pictures. Jones played the "Operator", a fictional entity based on the Internet myth known as the "
Slender Man", in
Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story, a 2015 film adaptation of the popular
Marble Hornets YouTube series. Jones was cast as
Saru, a non-human
Kelpien in
Star Trek: Discovery, which premiered on September 24, 2017. That same year, Jones reunited with
Guillermo del Toro, this time in a romantic lead role, the Amphibian Man (the "asset") in the Academy Award-winning
The Shape of Water. In 2022, Jones reprised his role as Billy Butcherson in
Hocus Pocus 2. ==Personal life==