Ron Cephas Jones, a veteran stage actor who won two Emmys for his role as a long-lost father who finds redemption on the NBC series This Is Us, has died at age 66, a rep has said.

Jones’ manager Dan Spilo said the actor died “due to a long-standing lung problem”.

“Throughout his career, his warmth, his beauty, his generosity, his kindness and his heart were felt by all who were lucky enough to know him,” Spilo said.

Jones underwent a double lung transplant in 2020 due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and spent nearly two months in a hospital in Los Angeles.

On This Is Us, Jones played William “Shakespeare” Hill, a biological father whose life is renewed through his relationship with the family of his son Randall Pearson, played by Sterling K Brown.

“One of the most wonderful people the world has ever seen is no longer with us,” Brown said in an Instagram post. “The world is a little less bright. Brother, you are loved. And we will miss you.

Jones played a more central role in the show’s early seasons, but appeared in one form or another in all six seasons of the show, which featured time-jumping narratives providing recurring opportunities for actors even after death. of their characters. Jones won Emmys for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2018 and 2020 and was nominated for two more.

“Ron was the best of the best – on screen, on stage and in real life,” This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman said. “My God: what an actor. I don’t think I ever edited one of his takes in an edit because everything he did was perfect.

Jones spent most of his acting career before and after This Is Us, returning to Broadway even after his transplant forced him to relearn how to breathe and walk.

“My whole life has been on stage,” Jones said in a 2021 interview with The New York Times, in which he revealed he had suffered from respiratory issues from the time he started This Is Us.

“The idea of ​​not playing anymore felt worse than death,” Jones said.

He was nominated for a Tony and won a 2022 Drama Desk award for a Broadway role as a truck stop cook in playwright Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s.

Originally from Paterson, New Jersey, Jones graduated from Ramapo College, where he intended to study jazz but turned to acting. He spent the late 1970s and early 1980s traveling the country, working as a bus driver in Southern California for several years.

In the mid-1980s, he moved to New York, where he began frequenting and collaborating at the Nuyorican Poets Café, an essential creative center for poetry, hip-hop and the performing arts. A breakthrough role came in 1994, when he landed the lead role in playwright Cheryl West’s drama Holiday Heart.

He would spend the next decades constantly in theater, often in Off Broadway plays, including a title tour as Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Public Theater, and in roles with the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago.

Jones has also guest-starred on TV on Mr Robot, Luke Cage and Lisey’s Story. His film appearances include Half Nelson in 2006 with Ryan Gosling and Dolemite Is My Name in 2019 with Eddie Murphy.

He is survived by his daughter, Jasmine Cephas Jones.