- Walter Emanuel Jones
Infobox Celebrity
image_size = 150px
name = Walter Emanuel Jones
caption = Walter Jones at Power Morphicon
birth_date = birth date and age|1970|11|30
birth_place = Detroit,Michigan , U.S.
death_date =
death_place =
occupation =actor ,dance r
salary =
networth =
website = [http://www.walteremanueljones.com Official site]
footnotes =Walter Emanuel Jones (born
November 30 ,1970 ) is an Americanactor known for playing the role ofZack Taylor , theBlack Ranger on the hittelevision series , "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ".Biography
Career
Jones played the character of
Zack Taylor , the originalBlack Ranger in the "Power Rangers" universe. He was written out of the series midway through the second season, apparently due to disagreements over wages and fee, and was replaced byJohnny Yong Bosch . Jones returned to "Power Rangers" in the Lost Galaxy season (1999) where he played the voice of Hexuba's Nightmare Monster in the episode "Dream Battle"; he also acted in an important episode of "" (2002) entitled "Forever Red " in which many previous Red Rangers teamed up. Again, he did not appear as his original character, Zack, but rather provided the voice for one of the antagonists, a general in theMachine Empire named Gerrok. He was also one of the special commentators, along with fellow co-starAmy Jo Johnson , on the "1993" episode of "I Love the '90s ". He also reunited withAustin St. John (with whom he formed a close friendship during their time together on the show) as co-host for a special airing of the original pilot episode of Power Rangers called "The Lost Episode".Jones was the very first actor to do voicework for any character other than a Ranger (mainly for monsters or villains) on a Power Rangers show after having a role as a Ranger himself. Other former Rangers who would do voicework after Jones included
Archie Kao ,Catherine Sutherland ,Jason Faunt ,Valerie Vernon , andSean Cw Johnson .Jones had major roles in the independent movies, "The Dogwalker" and Backyard Dogs. He has appeared in other well-known productions, including a small part in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the episode "Fear, Itself" and the
Disney Channel Original Movie , "Brink! ". He also appeared as Harlan Band in the Nickelodeon series "Space Cases ", his second role as a main character and as a teenager. He guest starred in an episode of "Family Matters" as Kissel, and portrayed a supporting character in the first season of "The Shield " named Rondell Robinson, a drug dealer.Jones also had a major role in the
backyard wrestling movie "Backyard Dogs", which spent time as the lowest-rated movie on theInternet Movie Database . As of July 2007 it is no longer on the list as it wasstraight-to-video . Jones provided the voice of a main character in the video game "Freedom Fighters "; he played a character known as The Kid.Most recently, he appeared briefly as a salsa dance instructor on " Age of Love".
Personal life
*Jones was raised on the west side of
Detroit, Michigan and graduated fromChula Vista High School . Jones has focused on teaching and performing salsa dancing and placed first in the 2004 Mayan International Salsa Championship.*Walter is missing the middle finger on his left hand.
*To this day, he still keeps in touch with
Austin St. John , who was one of his best friends on the show. He is also friends with actorWally Wingert ; Walter persuaded Wally to start work on Power Rangers, which landed him the role of Psycho Blue in "Power Rangers in Space " and "".*When Jones appeared in the 1993 episode of
I Love the '90s , he mentioned that people would come up to him and ask why he, as an African-American, was theBlack Ranger , and why the Asian girl (Thuy Trang ) was theYellow Ranger .*Jones was an unannounced special guest at the first-ever Power Rangers convention, the [http://www.powermorphicon.org/ Power Morphicon] , which took place in Los Angeles in June 2007. The convention also featured, among many other guests, his good friend
Austin St. John .*Walter took home a
tarantula from theMighty Morphin Power Rangers episode "Itsy bitsie Spider" and kept it as a pet. According to Jones his name was "Homie". This was stated at the Power Morphicon.External links
* [http://www.walteremanueljones.com/ His Official Website]
*imdb name|id=0429432|name=Walter Jones
* [http://www.myspace.com/walter_jones His Myspace page]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.