Tim Janes

November 23, 1946 - November 2, 2021

“Death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.” 

- Julius Caesar: 2.2

Actor, fundraiser, leftist, queer activist, “crazy cat lady,” amateur photographer, friend, uncle, son, brother.

Tim was born in Houston, Texas and, as the child of a military family, spent his childhood moving from place to place. He spent his high school years in Washington DC, where he began his activism by protesting prayer in school and demonstrating against the Vietnam War. He attended the University of Chicago just long enough to participate in the demonstration at the 1968 Democratic Convention. His early stints of employment included both the B&O and Illinois Central Railroads (yard clerk), KNDI Radio (announcer), BBC Publications, the Loft Cinema, and, according to his Facebook page, both MI5 and the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo (solo artist).

Upon moving to Tucson in the early ’70’s, Tim enrolled in the University of Arizona Drama Department, where he met his fellow thespians, who together, started the Invisible Theatre.

“He would drown the stage with tears,

And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,

Make mad the guilty and appal the free,

Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed

The very faculties of eyes and ears.”

 - Hamlet: 2.2

Tim would tread the boards in Tucson for the next 40ish years, appearing in plays produced by: The Round Company, The Invisible Theatre, Borderlands Theater, AKA Theater, Winding Road Theater, and others. Memorable roles included: Malvolio in Twelth Night, Freud in Vienna Play, Dick Cavett in Test Patterns, Jaques in As You Like It, John Dean in The Persecution and Sacrifice of John Mitchell as Performed by the Inmates of the Oval Office, Helmut Krauss in Dauntless, Willy in Minor Details. Tim was a proud SAG-AFTRA member and played Doc Holliday in Showdown at OK Corral (a made for TV movie) and Reporter #1 in Wanda Nevada, directed by Peter Fonda.

To support his acting habit, Tim worked as a professional fundraiser for a variety of Tucson non-profits whose missions fit his activist bent, including: Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona, Asylum Program of Southern Arizona, Wingspan LGBT Community Center, and Center for Biological Diversity. He was a superb writer and was able to use his skills to raise substantial funds from like-minded donors.

Tim was predeceased by his parents, Eugene and LucyBeth Janes, brother, Daryl Janes, and dearest friend Joseph Pagan. He is survived by his niece Nina Cheyenne Janes, great nephews Joshua Aidan Martinez-Janes and Milo Patterson Embry-Janes, loving friends, Barry Hatchel and Lizzie Schloss, and a large number of friends from the queer, acting, and non-profit communities.

A celebration of Tim’s life will be held in January 2022, date TBD. To share your memories, stories about Tim, and photographs, and to be informed about the celebration of his life, please join his page at GatheringUs.com. 

In lieu of anything else, please give, in Tim’s memory, to The Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, The Center for Biological Diversity, or a leftist non-profit of your choice.

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” - Hamlet: 5.2