Robert Emmett O’Connor is the actor who played the minor character of ‘Jonesy – Older Paramount Gate Guard’ in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard follows former Hollywood starlet Norma Desmond and her desire to once again be big name news in the entertainment industry, despite her belonging to a bygone era of silent film stars. Jonesy is a key figure in highlighting how old Hollywood and New Hollywood collide, noted by Robert Read in the “Small Parts, Small Players” dossier of Screen: “as evidence of the readjustments of celebrity and industry that came with the shift to talking pictures” (Read, 2011). While Norma was a very popular celebrity during the golden era of silent film, the transition to talking pictures and new acting methods did not include her and her mental health suffered tremendously at being left behind to obscurity. While being fixated on making a comeback, Norma visits the Paramount Studio sets with the intent of talking to a former colleague about her film script and is denied access to the studios by a young security guard who does not recognize her. Cue Jonesy, one of the ‘old guard’ at the gate who does recognize Norma as a former Paramount film star and hastens to compliment her while granting her access to the studio’s back lot area.
This interaction drives Read’s point home regarding the struggle for an older generation of film stars to become relevant as audience desires and cinema technologies change. The minor character part of the younger guard represents new Hollywood: talking pictures, younger stars, new acting methods, and rapidly changing cinematography techniques. This new Hollywood does not recognize Norma as someone of value and just like the old guard Jonesy, she belongs to a past era along with black and white film and overly dramatic silent acting methods. Jonesy’s recognition and admiration for Norma highlights the evolution of Hollywood and is a symbolic ‘changing of the guard’ moment, where the ideals of yesterday have made way for the advances of today. Jonesy’s minor character scene heightens awareness around the fickle nature of Hollywood fame while also demonstrating the all-consuming nature of stardom. Once Norma receives the recognition of Jonesy, she falls deeper into her own fantasy land where the narrative of her life is front-page news, and she is still relevant to the public. This inner madness has been fed by Jonesy’s kind words and reveals what fame does to a person’s state of mind in stripping them of a grounded reality and seducing them into egotistical oblivion. The minor character of Jonesy represents the last glimmering bit of recognition that silent film stars were granted during the evolution of cinema production and serves as a stark warning to potential Hollywood players that the rise and fall of celebrity comes with a price.
Works Cited
Read, Robert. “Uncredited: Jack Mulhall and the decline of stardom” Screen. vol. 52, no. 1, 2011.
Straw, Will. “Introduction” Screen. vol. 52, no. 1, 2011.
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