Ike Jones

Jones was born in Santa Monica, California, and attended Santa Monica High School. He studied motion picture production at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. While at UCLA, he also played end for the Bruins and was named to the 1952 All-Pacific Coast Conference team. After graduating from UCLA, Jones was drafted in the 25th round by the Green Bay Packers in the 1953 NFL draft, but declined the offer. ==Career==

In 1953, Jones worked as an actor in bit parts and served as an assistant director on The Joe Louis Story. Later on in the decade, Jones worked as an assistant producer for Hill-Hecht Lancaster Company. After that production company folded, Harry Belafonte hired him as vice president of development for Harbel Productions. In the 1960s, Jones headed Nat King Cole's Kell-Cole Productions. After the singer's death, Jones was hired as a producer on A Man Called Adam, a film starring Sammy Davis Jr. This was the first time that an African American was hired as a producer on a major motion picture. ==Personal life==

On November 18, 1961, Jones and actress Inger Stevens were married in Tijuana, Mexico. The demands of their careers meant that they spent much time apart, straining their marriage and they eventually separated. In April 1970, while the couple were estranged and living apart, Stevens died of a barbiturate overdose that was eventually ruled a suicide. Jones announced that he would use a portion of Stevens' $171,000 estate to open a mental health care clinic in her name in Watts, Los Angeles, but that never happened. At the time, Jones managed a chain of convalescent homes. Around that same time, Jones had made a number of bad investments, straining his finances. ==Later years and death==

In 1995, he became the first recipient of the Oscar Micheaux Award, presented by the Producers Guild of America. Jones died "of complications from a stroke and congestive heart failure" in an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles on October 5, 2014. He was 84. ==Legacy==

A street called Ike Jones Road near John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, is named for Ike Jones. == References ==