Gordon Jones
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gordon Wynnivo Jones (April 5, 1911 – June 20, 1963) was an American character actor, a member of John Wayne's informal acting company best known for playing Lou Costello's TV nemesis "Mike the Cop" and appearing as The Green Hornet in the first of two movie serials based on that old-time radio program. Iowa-born Jones had been a student athlete and star football guard ("Bull" Jones) at University of California, Los Angeles, and had also played a few seasons of professional football. He started out playing small roles in Wesley Ruggles' and Ernest B. Schoedsack's The Monkey's Paw (1933), his first credited role in Sam Wood's Let 'Em Have It (1935), and Sidney Lanfield's Red Salute (1935). By 1937, he had moved on to a contract at RKO Radio Pictures. In 1940, Jones had the title role in The Green Hornet but did not reprise the role in the sequel. Jones held a reserve commission in the army and was called into the service after filming his roles as "The Wreck" in My Sister Eileen (1942) and "Alabama Smith" in Flying Tigers (1942), a John Wayne vehicle that was one of the most popular action films of the war. This picture began Jones' 20-year onscreen association with Wayne, who was also a former football player at the University of Southern California. Jones remained associated with the service after the war, encouraging college students to consider the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. After resuming his acting career in the late 1940s, Jones appeared in prominent roles in the John Wayne features Big Jim McLain (1952) and Island in the Sky (1953). By the end of the 1940s, Jones had aged into a beefier screen presence and into very physical character roles. He was no longer a leading man but he had developed a comic villain persona which meshed with the work of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Jones' association with the duo began in The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) with the role of the film's heavy, Jake Frame, and continued through their television series The Abbott and Costello Show. Jones played "Mike the Cop", Costello's hulking, loud-voiced antagonist. The program was produced for only two seasons, but ensured continued recognition for Jones via frequent reruns and a 21st Century DVD release. Jones also remained busy in films and on television throughout the 1950s, in pictures that ranged from the sci-fi chiller The Monster That Challenged the World to the Tony Curtis/Janet Leigh sex comedy The Perfect Furlough, and on TV series ranging from The Real McCoys to The Rifleman. Jones also appeared in two very successful Disney movies during the early '60s, The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber. He played harried school coaches in both pictures. He also starred with Mitzi Green and Virginia Gibson in the short-lived TV sitcom So This Is Hollywood (1955), and had a recurring role as neighbor Butch Barton during the early years of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Jones returned to the John Wayne stock company portraying Douglas, the bureaucrat antagonist to Wayne's G.W. McLintock in the Western comedy McLintock! (1963). Jones unexpectedly succumbed to a heart attack on June 12, 1963, five months before the release of that movie. Jones has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the West side of the 1600 block of Vine Street.
Known For
Credits
- 2011 · The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First? as Mike The Cop
- 1963 · McLintock! as Matt Douglas
- 1962 · The Lucy Show as Charlie Vantassel
- 1961 · Everything's Ducky as Conroy
- 1961 · Master of the World as Talkative Townsman
- 1960 · The Case of the Dangerous Robin as Nels Bergstrom
- 1960 · Surfside 6 as
- 1960 · The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond as Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy
- 1959 · Battle of the Coral Sea as Torpedoman Bates
- 1959 · Hawaiian Eye as
- 1959 · Dennis the Menace as
- 1959 · The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis as
- 1959 · Laramie as
- 1959 · Battle Flame as Sgt. McKelvey
- 1959 · The Shaggy Dog as Captain Scanlon, Police Chief
- 1958 · The Perfect Furlough as MP "Sylvia"
- 1958 · 77 Sunset Strip as
- 1958 · The Rifleman as
- 1958 · Live Fast, Die Young as Pop Winters
- 1957 · Maverick as
- 1957 · Perry Mason as Deputy Gillis
- 1957 · Sugarfoot as Wasco Wolters
- 1957 · Sugarfoot as Sheriff
- 1957 · Have Gun, Will Travel as
- 1957 · Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Mike Gower
- 1957 · Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Joel Finlay
- 1957 · The Monster That Challenged the World as Sheriff Josh Peters
- 1957 · Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend as Will Clegg
- 1957 · Spring Reunion as Jack Frazer
- 1956 · The Adventures of Jim Bowie as
- 1955 · Cheyenne as
- 1955 · The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp as
- 1955 · Smoke Signal as Corporal Rogers
- 1955 · Treasure of Ruby Hills as Jack Voyle
- 1954 · Lassie as
- 1954 · The Outlaw Stallion as Wagner
- 1953 · Take the High Ground! as Moose (uncredited)
- 1953 · Island in the Sky as Walrus
- 1953 · Woman They Almost Lynched as Yankee Sergeant
- 1953 · I'm the Law as
- 1952 · The Abbott and Costello Show as
- 1952 · The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon as Curly Wolf
- 1952 · Cavalcade of America as Lt. Treusch
- 1952 · Wagon Team as Marshal Sam Taplin
- 1952 · Big Jim McLain as Olaf
- 1952 · The Winning Team as George Glasheen
- 1952 · Sound Off as Crockett
- 1952 · Gobs and Gals as CPO Mike Donovan
- 1952 · Dangerous Assignment as
- 1951 · Corky of Gasoline Alley as Elwood Martin
- 1951 · Racket Squad as
- 1951 · The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok as Curly Wolf
- 1951 · Heart of the Rockies as Splinters McGonigle
- 1951 · Spoilers of the Plains as Splinters
- 1950 · Trail of Robin Hood as Splinters McGonigle
- 1950 · North of the Great Divide as Splinters McGonagle
- 1950 · Sunset in the West as Splinters
- 1950 · The Colgate Comedy Hour as Self
- 1950 · Big Timber as Jocko
- 1950 · The Gene Autry Show as
- 1950 · Trigger, Jr. as Splinters
- 1950 · The Arizona Cowboy as I.Q. Barton
- 1950 · The Palomino as Bill Hennessey
- 1950 · Belle of Old Mexico as Tex Barnet
- 1949 · Dear Wife as Taxi Cab Driver
- 1949 · Tokyo Joe as Idaho
- 1949 · Easy Living as Bill 'Holly' Holloran
- 1949 · Black Midnight as Roy
- 1949 · Mr. Soft Touch as Muggles (Uncredited)
- 1948 · The Untamed Breed as Happy Keegan
- 1948 · Black Eagle as Benjy Laughton
- 1948 · Sons of Adventure as Andy Baldwin
- 1948 · A Foreign Affair as Military Police
- 1947 · Whispering City as Reporter
- 1947 · The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap as Jake Frame
- 1947 · The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as Tubby Wadsworth
- 1944 · Youth Runs Wild as Truck Driver (uncredited)
- 1942 · Flying Tigers as Alabama Smith
- 1942 · Highways by Night as 'Footsy' Fogarty
- 1942 · My Sister Eileen as 'The Wreck' Loomis
- 1941 · Among the Living as Bill Oakley
- 1941 · You Belong to Me as Robert Andrews
- 1941 · The Blonde from Singapore as 'Waffles' Billings
- 1941 · The Feminine Touch as Rubber-Legs Ryan
- 1940 · The Texas Rangers Ride Again as Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)
- 1940 · Girl from Havana as Tubby Waters
- 1940 · Up in the Air as Tex Barton
- 1940 · I Take This Oath as Steve Hanagan
- 1940 · The Doctor Takes a Wife as O'Brien
- 1940 · The Green Hornet as Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
- 1939 · Henry Goes Arizona as Tug Evans (uncredited)
- 1939 · Disputed Passage as Bill Anderson
- 1939 · Invitation to Happiness as Dutch Arnold (uncredited)
- 1939 · Big Town Czar as Chuck Hardy
- 1939 · Pride of the Navy as Joe Falcon
- 1939 · The Long Shot as Jeff Clayton
- 1938 · Out West with the Hardys as Ray Holt
- 1938 · I Stand Accused as Blackie
- 1938 · Rich Man, Poor Girl as Tom Grogan
- 1937 · Quick Money as Bill Adams
- 1937 · Fight for Your Lady as Mike Scanlon
- 1937 · The Big Shot as Chester Scott
- 1937 · There Goes My Girl as Dunn
- 1937 · China Passage as Joe Dugan
- 1937 · Sea Devils as Puggy
- 1937 · They Wanted to Marry as Jim Tyler
- 1937 · We Who Are About to Die as Slim Tolliver
- 1936 · Night Waitress as Martin Rhodes
- 1936 · Don't Turn 'em Loose as Joe Graves
- 1936 · Walking on Air as Joe
- 1936 · Devil's Squadron as Tex
- 1936 · Strike Me Pink as Butch Carson
- 1935 · Red Salute as Michael (Lefty) Jones
- 1935 · Let 'em Have It as Tex
- 1932 · Wild Girl as Vigilante (uncredited)