[1][2] He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's films Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973).

Jones was born August 19, 1927, in Beaumont, in southeastern Texas, the son of Jessie Paralee (née Stephens) and Justus Ellis McQueen Sr., a railroad worker.

[4][6] He worked as a stand-up comic, briefly played professional baseball and American football, and tried ranching in Nicaragua, then turned to acting after corresponding with Fess Parker, his former college roommate.

He became a member of Sam Peckinpah's stock company of actors, appearing in his Klondike series (1960–1961), Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973).

Jones also appeared as recurring characters on such western series as Cheyenne (1955), Gunsmoke (1955), Laramie, Two Faces West (1960–1961), and as ranch hand Andy Belden in The Virginian (1962).

Jones' other films include Men in War (1957); The Naked and the Dead (1958); Flaming Star (1960); Cimarron (1960); Hell Is for Heroes (1962); Hang 'Em High (1968); Stay Away, Joe (1968); The Brotherhood of Satan (1971), which he co-produced and wrote; Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975); White Line Fever 1976 Lone Wolf McQuade (1983); Casino (1995); Tornado!