Jones was a accomplished horseman from infancy. At the age of four he was billed as the World's Youngest Trick Rider and Roper. At the age of six, he was hired to perform riding and lariat tricks in the rodeo owned by western star Hoot Gibson. Gibson convinced young Jones and his parents that there was a place for him in Hollywood, and the boy and his mother went west.

As an actor he achieved some success both as a child and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns and in television on programs produced by Gene Autry's company. Now billed as Dick Jones he was sidekick to the Western hero known as The Range Rider, a TV series that ran for 76 episodes in 1951. He starred in his own series called Buffalo Bill, Jr in 1955. Jones' last acting role was as Cliff Fletcher in the 1965 film Requiem for a Gunfighter.

Jones died after a fall at his home on the evening of July 7, 2014, at the age of 87. He was the last surviving cast member of the 1940 animated film Pinocchio for which he had played the voice of Pinocchio when he was 13.