Tom Jones (writer) Wife: Meet Janet Watson

Janet Watson was a choreographer and the wife of Tom Jones, an American lyricist known  for “The Fantasticks,” the longest-running musical in history.

Before Janet Watson, he was previously married to Eleanor Wright. His second wife Janet Watson died February 8th 2016, after a long illness.

Janet choreographed the Tony Award-winning original production of Big River on Broadway. She worked extensively Off-Broadway from the mid 1980s to the mid 2000s.

She worked on shows including Mirette, Philemon, In the Bone Room, Portfolio Revue, The Show Goes On, the 1984 revival of Pacific Overtures, the 1996 revival of I Do! I Do!, Noel and Gertie, and the 2006 revival of The Fantasticks, which is still running.

Jones said his wife was “an incredible athlete” who was a competitive diver, a skater, and a regular competitor in the New York Marathon.

But in her professional life, Jones said, her special magic was the ability “to an actor who was maybe insecure and shy about movement, and make them truly believe they could move. That was her biggest gift.”

Tom Jones died of cancer on August 11, 2023, at the age of 95. He died Friday at his home in Sharon, Connecticut, according to Dan Shaheen, a co-producer of “The Fantasticks,” who worked with Jones since the 1980s.