Eldon Jones as Cody, grandson of focus character Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina, right) , was the one bright spot in the overwhelming heterosexism of the Netflix paranormal series The Boroughs. While enduring the endless "My wife! My wife! My wife", it was a relief to check out the photos his mom posted of Eldon in feminine outfits, hanging with his gay brother, and attending Pride events. Maybe the kid is gay in real life, maybe not, but he provides a reminder that LGBT people exist, no matter how aggressively they are erased.
Eldon was born in 2011, son of Neal Jones, best known for Dirty Dancing (1987): he plays the "kind-hearted" Billy, who gets his cousin Johnny (Patrick Swayze, left) a job at the Borscht Belt resort, and introdues him to "dirty dancing."
The family lives in Albuquerque. Older brother Jax (middle) graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in fine arts in May 2026. Mom often posts photos of him and his boyfriend.
Eldon is in the front, and sister Marian, also an actor, is in the back of the sibling pile.
Eldon is remarkably accomplished.
A member of the permanent company of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico.
Studies piano at the New Mexico School of Music.
An artist, interested in penguin comics and watercolors.
A chef, baking bread and making soup for the family.
Literary. When they visited London, he checked out the bookstores (that's the first thing I look for, too). He was reading Herman Hesse at age 12.
I've read some Hesse (Siddhartha and Steppenwolf), but I never even heard of the book he's reading: Knulp, about a "carefree vagabond who lives outside societal rules."
And of course Eldon is an actor.
He started as a background player in three 2022 episodes of Walker: Independence, about a woman in the Old West searching for the guy who murdered her husband. Apparently there's a gay character.
Left: I couldn't find the gay guy in the cast list, but I found Jeff Pierre, who played Cameron Monaghan's boyfriend on Shameless.
More after the break
Next Eldon was a background player in Chupa (2023): a boy named Alex (Evan Whitten) befriends a cute baby chupacabra while visiting family in Mexico. Contrary to usual practice, Alex doesn't get a girlfriend. He has the adventure with his cousins and an aging luchador (Demian Bichir, the naked one), who also fails to get a girlfriend.
According to Eldon's resume, he played Cal in National Anthem (2023), about a guy (queer actor Charlie Plummer) who goes to work at a ranch for LGBTQ people and explores his interest in drag. There is no Cal in the cast list.
But there's a Billy, nephew of gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart), in Love Lies Bleeding (2024), a lesbian neo-noir set in the high desert. He notes that Kristen taught him to snap between takes: an important skill for a snap queen.
Next Eldon was the body double for Devin (Preston Mota) in American Primeval (2025). Devin is the "sensitive," gay-coded son of Sarah (Betty Gilpin), who flees from Missouri to Utah to beat a murder rap in the Old West. She falls in love with guide Isaac (Taylor Kitch, left). The leader of the Native Americans is a lesbian.
In 2026, Edlon played Atreyu in a dance version of The Neverending Story, based on the 1984 movie (which was based on the 1979 novel). Atreyu rescues the Childlike Empress, but in an interview Eldon describes the story as saving the Kingdom of Fantasia, minimizing his pas de deux with The Girl.
There's even a bit of gay connection in The Boroughs (2026). Eldon's movie mom and dad, Jena Malone and Rafael Casal, are both members of the LGBTQ community.
Eldon and his Mom don't reveal anything about his friends on his social media, so I can't determine if he's gay in real life or not. But with so many gay-positive projects and interests (dancing, cooking, piano), the earring (on the "gay" side), and his favorite color (pink), I'll be surprised if he doesn't take a boy to his senior prom.
See also: "Love Lies Bleeding": Lesbian neo-noir in the New Mexico desert, with some musclemen and bonus dicks
Gavin Lewis: Is the Prince of Peoria packing? Or are his abs enough? With Gavin, Jordan, and Tim Nelson's stuff. Appeared in Walker: Independence.
No comments:
Post a Comment