Caro Jones

Caro Jones (1923 – September 3, 2009) was a Canadian-American actress, singer, and casting director whose career spanned more than four decades and encompassed over 1,000 film, theater, and television productions. Born in Canada, she relocated to New York City at the age of 18, where she was hired as a singer with the touring company of Oklahoma. Her Broadway career included a credit in the 1943 production of Oklahoma. That early connection to the musical theater world led Jones into casting, beginning with a position as assistant to the head casting director at the Theatre Guild. She advanced rapidly within the organization, eventually becoming its head casting director.

While at the Theatre Guild, Jones transitioned into live television, casting for The United States Steel Hour, an anthology series that aired on ABC and CBS from 1953 to 1963. Among the actors she placed in that series were Patty Duke, Sidney Pollack, Gene Hackman, William Shatner, Burgess Meredith, Johnny Carson, Martin Sheen, and George C. Scott. One of her early assistants during this period was Les Moonves, who later became president of the CBS television network. Jones maintained her ties to the Theatre Guild throughout her career, with her final work for the organization being the casting of the 1996 Broadway production and touring company of State Fair.

During her time in New York, Jones married singer Arthur Eiseman, with whom she had one son, Jack Eiseman, who became an actor and singer and appeared in the original Broadway production of Oliver. Jones later married her second husband, Al Simon, a Filmways Television producer, while working at that company.

Jones relocated to Los Angeles to pursue opportunities in television and film. She was hired to oversee casting for Paramount Television, where her credits included Paper Moon, Love American Style, Mannix, and the pilot episode of a Robin Hood: Men in Tights television series with Mel Brooks, a project that was later developed into Brooks's 1993 film. She subsequently joined Filmways Television as a casting director, where she spent five years casting the series Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and The Debbie Reynolds Show, as well as the films What's the Matter with Helen? and Fuzz.

After departing Filmways, Jones established her own casting agency. Her first independent project was the 1976 John Avildsen film Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. She had previously worked with Avildsen on his 1973 film Save the Tiger, starring Jack Lemmon. Subsequent credits under her own company included The Karate Kid in 1984 and Back to School in 1986. Her miniseries work included The Martian Chronicles, starring Rock Hudson, in 1980, and the 1981 production Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, in which Jaclyn Smith portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Jones received the Artios Award from the Casting Society of America, as well as the organization's Hoyt Bowers Award in 1994. She was a founding member of both the Casting Society of America and Women in Film, and served as a Governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She held memberships in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Equity, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. A collection of her production notebooks and scripts, known as the Caro Jones Collection of Scripts and Production Notebooks, is preserved at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

Jones died on September 3, 2009, in Los Angeles from multiple myeloma, a disease she had lived with for fourteen years. She was 86 years old. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale and was survived by her brother William Jones, two grandchildren, Jacqueline and Chase Eiseman, and two nieces, Caro Norris and Penelope Swanson.