Willie Jones

William "Willie" Jones (played by the late John Witherspoon) is Craig and Dana's father. He is the husband of Betty. Willie Jones was born on November of 1941. He passed away in October 2019. He was 77.

Background[]

He works as a dog catcher, but in the third film, he quits his job and operates a restaurant with his brother Elroy, "Bros' BBQ". He appears to be very hard on Craig because of his slacker nature and even wants him to move out, but he does love him as he shows him to fend for himself without using a gun but to fight.

Personality[]

Willie is best described as an ill-tempered, cantankerous man whose financial and health problems worsen his mind. His increasing age just exacerbates his already poor health since he has poor bowel movements, and is apparently losing his sense of smell. He has financial problems stemming from how he gets low pay as a dogcatcher and that his pay depends on how many dogs he catches. Willie takes his anger and frustration out on Craig all the time, even blaming Craig at times for his problems.

Friday (1995)[]

In Friday, he is first seen scolding Craig for being in the kitchen every time he is in the kitchen, upset about how his son is always looking through the refrigerator. While in the bathroom, he mentions to Craig that his wife told him about Craig’s getting fired. He offers Craig a job with him dog catching but Craig declines, upsetting him. He then threatens to kick Craig out of the house unless he’s working or in school. He’s next seen arriving home from work, telling Craig and his friend Smokey to get out of the house if they’re gonna make noise. Later in the day, Craig decides to walk Smokey home, but in fear of getting killed by Big Worm, he grabs his gun. Willie walks in on Craig cocking his gun and asks him what it’s for. He teaches Craig that a gun is no tool for protection and that being good at fighting is all the protection he’ll ever need. We last see him run out the house, startled for Craig and Smokey as he is the only one in the family who is aware of his situation, After Craig sees Deebo hit Debbie, Craig pulls his gun on Deebo, startling Willie. He tries to talk Craig down and reminds him of the talk they had earlier in the day. This leads Craig to put his gun down and start fighting, proving that his father was right and that there was no need to punk out and protect yourself the easy way. After Craig beat Deebo, it’s clear that Willie is very impressed and proud of Craig for following through on his lesson and they all go to bed for the night.

Next Friday (2000)[]

In Next Friday, he forced Craig to move out and to go live with his uncle Elroy and Day-Day, and that his favorite benefit about Craig moving out was getting to see his wife in the nude, being delighted by it so much that's the first thing he tells Craig when driving him to Day-Day and Elroy's house to stay there. When ordering a burrito at the taco joint after work, Deebo’s brother Tyrone, calls the taco joint pretending (not very good) to be a friend of the family, stating that Craig is in trouble and needs to go Rancho Cucamonga immediately. Unknowingly assisting in Deebo’s ploy to get him and his brother to Craig’s location faster. At the end of the movie, he assists Craig and Elroy in saving Day-Day and Roach.

Friday after Next (2002)[]

In the third film Friday After Next, he did a commercial for Uncle Elroy's barbeque restaurant where Elroy quoted "Tastes so good that it makes you want to slap your momma!" and Willie agreed ("Yeah, boy! Hey momma!") His mom angrily responded ("What do you want?!"), but Willie just slapped her out cold and she collapsed to the ground. This gave Willie's mom such a severe injury her she lost her memory of her grandson Craig due to brain damage. Willie then admits he regrets not smacking Elroy instead.

Not only does he order Craig to move out, but he refuses to pay for Craig's separate rent as revealed in Friday After Next when Mrs. Pearly asked him how much he loved his boy, and he responded, "Not enough to pay his rent" complaining he almost can't afford his own.

Alternate Ending to Friday After Next[]

However in the alternate ending, Willie did show he was proud of Craig in being mature enough to help Santa(revealed to be a homeless man) telling him to keep the gifts. He even defended him and Day-Day by calling the Department of Health on Moly for his squalor doughnut service, leading to the latter's arrest.

Friday: The Animated Series (2007)[]

In Friday: The Animated Series, Willie is depicted to be just as, or even more cruel and abusive to Craig than in the films. He refuses to let Craig eat breakfast in any episode where the family's eating breakfast (they are usually having bacon) and will force him to work or bring money to the house instead of eat. He also is physically abusive to Smokey, getting prone to beating him up with a golf club.He also say he want u to go out and look for a job the word today is job.

Sibling Rivalry with Elroy[]

He also has a sibling rivalry with his brother Elroy, who he laments as ungrateful and receiving the most affection from the family than he ever had. He is further enraged that Elroy had won the lottery. Willy constantly makes remarks how his brother picked up a gun and had to learn things the hard way. Elroy insults his older brother's intelligence and blames it on his staying at a job that doesn't pay enough, yet, demands too much of his livelihood. They fight more in the third film about who was their parent's favorite, who was can charm women better, and even who's got the bigger privates.

Quotes[]

"Don't nobody go in the bathroom for about 35-45 minutes. Somebody open the window!". -to his family (in Friday)
"I slipped in mud and it's your fault Craig!" -to Craig (in Next Friday)
”Yeah boy!” Various times (in Friday After Next)

Trivia[]

Craig and Willie Jones are the only characters to appear in all three Friday films.
In Next Friday, Willie possibly references Craig's date of birth by speculating that Craig's grandmother dropped Craig as an infant, sometime during the summer of 1975.
Willie also has a poor sense of smell as in Next Friday he landed onto a pile of dog feces that got over the back of his clothes but couldn't smell it despite the fact that feces have a strong bad smell.
A common running gag in the film series is that Willie has an irritable bowel disorder that causes him to run into the bathroom at the most unfortunate times and even when he ate hot sauce in his burrito.
John Witherspoon sadly passed away on October 29, 2019, at age 77 from a heart attack. According to Ice Cube, he did not film any scenes as Willie for a potential fourth Friday movie (which is to be titled Last Friday).