He was born to Georgia Wood Jones and Henry Leon Jones. He attended Fremont High school in Los Angeles, California. He was hired as a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Newspaper in 1954. He became a disc jockey at KBCA and KGFJ radio and a news director for KDAY radio in L.A. in 1962. He worked as a production assistant for the West Coast edition of the Huntley-Brinkley Report from 1963-65 which he left to become a regular newscaster for KRLA radio in Pasadena. A position he held until 1967 when he was hired as a Feature Reporter at KTTV-TV in Los Angeles where he received an Emmy Award for a one-hour news special. His growing prominence led to numerous TV and film roles including Votez Mc Kay (1972) and Le monde merveilleux de Disney: The Young Runaways (1978).