Tommy Lee Jones filed for a temporary conservatorship over his daughter, Victoria Jones, years before her death at 34.
Us Weekly can confirm that Tommy, 79, filed a petition in August 2023 to establish a guardianship over Victoria’s person and estate. Tommy is listed in the court documents as the petitioner, while Margaret Caron Schmierer was set to be the conservator. His request was granted before a judge ruled to terminate the conservatorship in December 2023.
News broke two years later on New Year’s Day that Victoria had been found dead inside a San Francisco hotel room.
“Upon arrival, paramedics from the fire department performed an assessment. The person was declared deceased,” a statement from the San Francisco Fire Department read. “SFPD and the medical examiner’s office were called to the scene. Scene turned over to SFPD and SF Medical Examiners.”
TMZ, who was first to report the news, also obtained 911 audio, in which law enforcement officers were called to the hotel for a “code 3 for the overdose, color change.”
Victoria is survived by her parents, Tommy and ex-wife Kimberlea Cloughley, and brother Austin Jones.
“We appreciate all of the kind words, thoughts, and prayers,” a rep for the Jones family told Us in a statement earlier this month. “Please respect our privacy during this difficult time.”
Victoria had followed in her father’s footsteps as an actress, appearing in his movies Men in Black II, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and The Homesman.
“She’s a good actress, has her SAG card, speaks impeccable Spanish,” Tommy recalled to The New Yorker in 2006, speaking on casting Victoria in 2005’s The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. “When she was a baby, I told her nurse to speak to her in Spanish, but I fired my daughter [from the movie].”
He continued at the time, “She had to get up at 5 a.m. for her part. One morning, she wouldn’t get out of bed. I said, ‘Honey, this is work.’ She wouldn’t budge, so I fired her. Then, without telling me, the production staff went over and woke her and rushed her out to the set just in time.”
Tommy and Cloughley divorced in 1991 before the Oscar winner moved on with photographer Dawn Laurel-Jones. Tommy and Laurel-Jones later tied the knot in 2001.
“I don’t know what the hell I was doing,” Tommy told The Independent in 2013 of meeting Laurel-Jones. “She took a lot of pictures down there and the Climate Reality group liked them so much, they put on an exhibition and auction in London. We were there to hang that show and attend the auction. She took some beautiful pictures there. Of course, the ice is melting, and these pictures dramatized that somewhat. They’re very beautiful pictures.”
Tommy and Laurel-Jones have since split their time between a ranch in Texas and a polo facility in Argentina.
“We’ve built a world-class polo field and a practice field there, so my team and the kids’ teams can play,” he previously told The New Yorker in 2006. “Dawn is one of the best women polo players in the country, and she didn’t even know how to ride a horse 10 years ago.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
