January Kristen Jones is an American actress and model, best known for portraying the role of Betty Draper in Mad Men, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Take a look below for 21 more fun and fascinating facts about January Jones.
1. Jones was born on January 5, 1978, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
2. She is named after January Wayne, a character in Jacqueline Susann’s potboiler novel turned film, Once Is Not Enough.
3. She is the daughter of Karen Cox, a store manager; and Marvin Jones, a gym teacher and fitness director.
4. She is of Czech, Danish, English, Welsh, and German descent.
5. She has two sisters, Jacey and Jina.
6. Her family moved to Hecla, South Dakota, (population 400) in 1979, but they moved back to Sioux Falls in 1996.
7. She graduated from Roosevelt High School there.
8. Jones has had supporting roles in Anger Management (2003), Love Actually, and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.
9. In 2005, she appeared as a U.S. border guard’s wife in the film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones.
10. In We Are Marshall (2006), she played the role of Carol Dawson, wife of American football coach William “Red” Dawson.
11. She played the lead female role in the movie Love’s Enduring Promise as a pioneer family’s oldest child. Her character falls in love with a mysterious man who saves her father’s life.
12. She also appeared in the AMC original television drama series Mad Men for seven seasons as young suburban housewife and mother Betty Draper Francis. She received two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination for her performances.
13. Jones is also known for her role as Cadence Flaherty, the love interest of both Steve Stifler and Paul Finch in the 2003 comedy film American Wedding, the third installment of the American Pie film series.
14. She played a con artist in the Law & Order episode “Quit Claim” who, as a lone surviving suspect connected to a real estate scam involving organized crime, frustrates the efforts of Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter.
15. She also appeared in The Boat That Rocked, a British film about offshore pirate radio in the 1960s, renamed Pirate Radio for North American release in 2009.
16. Jones was ranked No. 82 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002.
17. She appeared on the cover of “The Hot Issue” of British GQ magazine in May 2009.
18. In 2009, Jones joined the marine conservation organization Oceana, as a celebrity spokesperson, working to save endangered sharks and to inform others about sharks’ vital importance in nature.
19. She has gone swimming with sharks for a PSA for the group.
20. Jones gave birth a son named Xander Dane Jones on September 13, 2011. She ate her own placenta and advised other mothers to do the same.
21. The father of the child has never been revealed.
