Ron Cephas Jones looked to be in good spirits in one of his final public appearances before his shocking death.
The Emmy winner is best known for his role as William Hill on the NBC drama This Is Us.
3
3
The Drama Desk winner was 66.
Ron was last seen smiling at the 2022 Tony Awards, where he was nominated for an award for his performance in Clyde’s on Broadway.
He looked healthy and far different from the elderly father of Randall Pearson (Sterling K. Brown).
Ron was dressed in a classy light gray tuxedo, with white shirt and black bow tie.
His hair was freshly cut and he was wearing a pair of black eyeglasses.
Ron died following a long-standing pulmonary issue, a rep for the actor confirmed to PEOPLE on Saturday in a statement.
The statement read: “Beloved and award-winning actor Ron Cephas Jones has passed away at the age of 66 due to a long-standing pulmonary issue.
“Throughout the course of his career, his warmth, beauty, generosity, kindness, and heart were felt by anyone who had the good fortune of knowing him,” the statement continued.
Read Related Also: Khloe Kardashian shows off stunning outdoor terrace with incredible views at her $17M LA mansion in new photo
Multiple tributes have flooded in as one fan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Aaaaw man! Rest peacefully Ron Cephas Jones.”
Ron is best known for playing William Hill, which earned him guest acting Emmy’s in 2018 and 2022.
In 2021, Ron told The New York Times he had privately fought chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and received a double lung transplant the year prior.
He also told Entertainment Weekly about an on-set health scare he had he had while filming the final episode of This Is Us.
“You cats held me when I was struggling and you didn’t let me go. You’ve been there for a very difficult part of my life. I’m a walking miracle,” Cephas Jones said.
“My whole life has been the stage,” the actor said.
“The idea of not performing again seemed worse to me than death.”
The New Jersey native is survived by his daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones, 34, who followed her father into the film industry.
She also won an Emmy in 2020, which made them the first father-daughter pair to receive awards in the same year.
Cephas Jones had a long-term relationship with his daughter’s mother, the British singer Kim Lesley, but the couple never got married.
3
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’
fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
