- Born
- Birth nameJanuary Kristen Jones
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- January Jones was born on January 5, 1978 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She is the daughter of Karen Sue (née Cox), a sporting goods store manager, and Marvin Roger Jones, a gym teacher and fitness director. She is of Czech, Danish, English, Welsh, and German ancestry. She was named after the character January Wayne in Jacqueline Susann's potboiler novel turned film, Once Is Not Enough (1975). She has two sisters, Jacey Jones and Jina Jones].
Her family moved to the small town of Hecla, South Dakota, with a population of just some 400 souls in 1979, when she was one year old; they moved back to Sioux Falls in 1986. After graduating from Roosevelt High School, she moved to New York City to become a model. Despite her stature (5'6", which is short for a fashion model), she got modeling gigs, including Abercrombie & Fitch ads. However, modeling was just a means to an end, to get out of South Dakota and avoid going to college.
She got her first taste of acting from TV commercials and found that she had flair for it, even though she did not act in high school and had no training. January appeared in a couple of television pilots and a cable television series before making her big screen debut in All the Rage (1999), an indie that never got a real release. She followed it up with a small role in the teen thriller The Glass House (2001). Her actual debut in the sense of attracting attention was in the near silent role of the beauty who entices Jane Fonda's son, Troy Garity, in the Bruce Willis-Cate Blanchett-Billy Bob Thornton comedy Bandits (2001). It was not a career-making part. At the time the movie was released, she was ending a three-year relationship with Ashton Kutcher.
Small roles followed, including a "don't blink or you won't see me" part in the Adam Sandler-Jack Nicholson comedy Anger Management (2003). She gained some career traction with a good role in another comedy, American Wedding (2003), a sequel to American Pie (1999). Until she landed the part on Mad Men (2007), which made its debut on AMC in 2007, her career was steady but undistinguished. "I choose roles that are not me", January has said. The role of Betty Draper has garnered her two Golden Globe nominations and an Emmy nomination as Best Actress. Her cool, Grace Kelly-ish blonde ice queen looks -- counterpointed by her soul burning in her bright blue eyes -- have established her as a retro icon of the 21st Century.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
- ChildrenXander Dane Jones
- ParentsKaren Sue Jones (Cox)Marvin Roger Jones
- RelativesJacey Jones(Sibling)Jina Jones(Sibling)
- Originally auditioned for Peggy Olson in Mad Men (2007), a role that eventually went to Elisabeth Moss.
- Gave birth to her first child at age 33, son Xander Dane Jones, on September 13, 2011 at St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. The child's father is unknown.
- Makes her own jewelry.
- Was in a relationship with Jason Sudeikis (July 2010-January 2011).
- Was 8 months pregnant with her son Xander when she took maternity leave from filming the fifth season of Mad Men (2007).
- Why not show off if you've got something to show?
- I was in lingerie on a trampoline and I had to jump into the air for eight hours. My legs were starting to buckle.
- I feel as though my career really hit its high point when I was cast as a supporting actress in American Wedding (2003). I thought the script had a lot of depth and intelligence, and it really just jumped off the page.
- [on her Mad Men (2007) character]: I don't judge Betty or necessarily understand her. The audience is passionate about her. After season one they wanted her to speak out against Don and his infidelities. Then in season two, when she did, there was a huge reaction against Betty. They want her to talk - just not too much.
- [on moving to New York] I was excited to be independent, but I was also naive--I just wanted to be rich and famous. I lived in an apartment near the Empire State Building. There were a billion girls in New York City who wanted to be models. After a while I was immune to rejection, which helped when I went out to L.A. to become an actress. In modeling, the criteria is purely aesthetic. So when I got to L.A., I didn't care if they said I was too small, too blonde, too pretty, or not pretty enough.
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