Allan Jones (October 14, 1907 – June 27, 1992) was an American actor and tenor.
Jones is best remembered as the male romantic lead actor in the first two films the Marx Brothers starred in for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937), as well as the film musicals Show Boat (1936) and The Firefly (1937), where he introduced the "The Donkey Serenade", which became his signature song.
Early years
Jones was born in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Scranton, where he graduated from Central High School. His father and grandfather were Welsh coal miners, and he worked in coal mines early in his adult life. He left that occupation to study voice at New York University.
In an interview in 1973, Jones recalled that his father and grandfather were musically talented: "My father had a beautiful tenor voice. So did my grandfather...Grandfather taught violin, voice, and piano when he could. My father sang every chance he could get and realized his ambition through me."
