Tommy Lee Jones’ Family Break Silence After Daughter Victoria’s Death

The family of Victoria Jones, the daughter of actor Tommy Lee Jones, has released a statement following her tragic death at the age of 34 on New Year’s Day.

“We appreciate all of the kind words, thoughts, and prayers. Please respect our privacy during this difficult time,” said the family in a statement to Rolling Stone on Friday.

Jones was reportedly found unresponsive at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on Jan. 1. A cause of death has not yet been given, though in police dispatch audio obtained by People, the call for the incident was classified as “code three,” suggesting a possible drug overdose. 

The San Francisco Fire Department confirmed in a statement shared with Rolling Stone that it responded to a “report of a medical emergency” at the hotel around 2:52 a.m. on New Year’s Day. “Upon arrival, paramedics from the fire department performed an assessment,” the statement read. “The person was declared deceased.”

Victoria was one of two children Jones had with his second wife, Kimberlea Cloughley. The couple were married from 1981 to 1996 and also had a son, Austin, who is 43. Victoria appeared alongside her father in several of his films, including a cameo in Men in Black II and appeared in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which Jones directed. 

During a 2006 interview with The New Yorker, Jones praised his daughter, who played a young Mexican girl in his film and was 14 at the time. “She’s a good actress, has her SAG card, speaks impeccable Spanish,” he said. “When she was a baby, I told Leticia, her nurse, to speak to her in Spanish.”

He also recalled firing Victoria at the time, after she had trouble with the early morning set times as a kid. “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.’ But she wouldn’t budge. So I fired her,” he said. “Then, without telling me, the production staff went over and woke her and rushed her out to the set just in time.”