… that was really what I’d wanted anyway when I started out to be an actor. I wanted to be a great stage actor, because those were the actors I admired, and those were the ones I was able to see. And when I was coming up, there weren’t a lot of African-Americans doing television. And I’m talking about the ’70s, when I went to high school and college.”
The talented star revealed to The New York Times in 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 with Today, he said his Tony-nominated performance in Clyde’s on 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.”