Jones was born in
Los Angeles, California. Her first name comes from
the Chinese heroine of the novel
The Good Earth by
Pearl S. Buck. Her father left the family when she was a child. Her mother Scarlett Johnson, a self-described "free spirit", moved their family for a year to a remote
Mayan village in the
Yucatán jungle when Jones was 15. In 1966 when Jones was 16, they moved to
Greenwich Village, New York City, where Jones began her acting career. It was there that Johnson married writer and occasional actor Johnny Dark, while Jones was dating Dark's best friend, playwright
Sam Shepard. Shepard wrote the role of "Oolan" for Jones in his 1967 play
Forensic & The Navigators. In 1969, Jones and Shepard were married. She went on to star in a number of his plays, including
Suicide in B♭ and
Angel City. Jones gave birth to their son Jesse Mojo Shepard in 1971. They divorced in 1984 when he left her for actress
Jessica Lange. Jones is an alumna of
New Dramatists. In addition to her acting, she is a writer, musician, composer and lyricist. She is the artistic director of
Overtone Industries, a company she founded in 1980 dedicated to creating and developing new works for opera and musical theater. In 2003 she married her longtime boyfriend Halldor Enard. In early 2024, filmmaker
Alex Mechanik discussed that he was set to direct a feature film starring Jones for
Gloria Sanchez Productions. ==Selected filmography==