Henry Jones Sr.

When Indy is a boy, Henry takes him and his tutor Helen Seymour on a trip around the world, in 1908. Henry is serious, demanding and lives among books and notes. He wants his son to learn languages and history, and treats everything else as a distraction. The two grow close and drift apart, and the series shows the seeds of the conflict seen in the films. Henry can't talk about affection, and Indy grows up thinking he'll never be enough. That silence explains a lot of what comes later.

In 1938 Henry disappears in Venice. His diary, which Indy receives in the mail, holds the Grail clue. When Indy finds him in a Nazi castle, Henry greets him with a slap and a scolding. For Henry the Grail is his life's work. For Indy it's a chance to get his father out of there. Henry still calls him Junior, and Indy hates it.

Henry is friends with Marcus Brody, the museum director who gets lost in any city. It's Marcus who brings Indy the news of the disappearance. Henry and his son both get tangled up with Elsa Schneider, the doctor who helps the search and later turns out to be allied with the Nazis, and the embarrassment between them becomes a running joke. Humor is what brings father and son together.

The two flee by sidecar motorcycle, zeppelin and plane, arguing the whole way. Henry admits he never talked to his son the way he should have, because the Grail consumed him. On a beach, with a Nazi plane in pursuit, he remembers a line of Charlemagne's and sends a flock of seagulls into the aircraft. It's the moment Indy sees his father as a hero.

In the Grail temple Henry is shot by Donovan, and only the Grail can save him. Indy has to pass three trials, and the last one demands faith. Henry guides him with the clues he studied all his life. In the end the Grail heals his father, the two escape the temple, and Henry asks his son to let go of what's behind him. For the first time he calls him Indiana.

Sean Connery plays Henry Jones Sr. in The Last Crusade.