Gordon Jones

Birthday: 1911-04-05
Deathday: 1963-06-20
Birthplace: Alden, Iowa, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

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.

Credits

Year Title Character
2011-02-01 The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First? Mike The Cop
1963-11-12 McLintock! Matt Douglas
1961-12-20 Everything's Ducky Conroy
1961-05-01 Master of the World Talkative Townsman
1960-02-03 The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy
1959-11-01 Battle of the Coral Sea Torpedoman Bates
1959-07-26 Battle Flame Sgt. McKelvey
1959-03-19 The Shaggy Dog Captain Scanlon, Police Chief
1958-11-30 The Perfect Furlough MP "Sylvia"
1958-04-01 Live Fast, Die Young Pop Winters
1957-06-14 The Monster That Challenged the World Sheriff Josh Peters
1957-05-04 Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend Will Clegg
1957-03-01 Spring Reunion Jack Frazer
1955-03-01 Smoke Signal Corporal Rogers
1955-01-23 Treasure of Ruby Hills Jack Voyle
1954-07-03 The Outlaw Stallion Wagner
1953-10-30 Take the High Ground! Moose (uncredited)
1953-09-05 Island in the Sky Walrus
1953-03-20 Woman They Almost Lynched Yankee Sergeant
1952-11-01 The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon Curly Wolf
1952-09-29 Wagon Team Marshal Sam Taplin
1952-08-30 Big Jim McLain Olaf
1952-06-20 The Winning Team George Glasheen
1952-05-15 Sound Off Crockett
1952-05-01 Gobs and Gals CPO Mike Donovan
1951-09-17 Corky of Gasoline Alley Elwood Martin
1951-03-29 Heart of the Rockies Splinters McGonigle
1951-02-02 Spoilers of the Plains Splinters
1950-12-15 Trail of Robin Hood Splinters McGonigle
1950-11-15 North of the Great Divide Splinters McGonagle
1950-09-25 Sunset in the West Splinters
1950-09-10 Big Timber Jocko
1950-06-30 Trigger, Jr. Splinters
1950-04-01 The Arizona Cowboy I.Q. Barton
1950-03-18 The Palomino Bill Hennessey
1950-03-01 Belle of Old Mexico Tex Barnet
1949-11-15 Dear Wife Taxi Cab Driver
1949-10-26 Tokyo Joe Idaho
1949-10-08 Easy Living Bill 'Holly' Holloran
1949-10-01 Black Midnight Roy
1949-07-28 Mr. Soft Touch Muggles (Uncredited)
1948-10-20 The Untamed Breed Happy Keegan
1948-09-16 Black Eagle Benjy Laughton
1948-09-01 Sons of Adventure Andy Baldwin
1948-08-20 A Foreign Affair Military Police
1947-11-20 Whispering City Reporter
1947-10-08 The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap Jake Frame
1947-09-01 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Tubby Wadsworth
1944-09-01 Youth Runs Wild Truck Driver (uncredited)
1942-10-08 Flying Tigers Alabama Smith
1942-10-02 Highways by Night 'Footsy' Fogarty
1942-09-24 My Sister Eileen 'The Wreck' Loomis
1941-12-12 Among the Living Bill Oakley
1941-10-22 You Belong to Me Robert Andrews
1941-10-15 The Blonde from Singapore 'Waffles' Billings
1941-10-01 The Feminine Touch Rubber-Legs Ryan
1940-12-13 The Texas Rangers Ride Again Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)
1940-09-11 Girl from Havana Tubby Waters
1940-09-09 Up in the Air Tex Barton
1940-05-20 I Take This Oath Steve Hanagan
1940-04-25 The Doctor Takes a Wife O'Brien
1940-01-08 The Green Hornet Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
1939-12-08 Henry Goes Arizona Tug Evans (uncredited)
1939-10-25 Disputed Passage Bill Anderson
1939-06-07 Invitation to Happiness Dutch Arnold (uncredited)
1939-05-03 Big Town Czar Chuck Hardy
1939-01-23 Pride of the Navy Joe Falcon
1939-01-06 The Long Shot Jeff Clayton
1938-11-25 Out West with the Hardys Ray Holt
1938-10-29 I Stand Accused Blackie
1938-08-12 Rich Man, Poor Girl Tom Grogan
1937-12-10 Quick Money Bill Adams
1937-11-05 Fight for Your Lady Mike Scanlon
1937-07-23 The Big Shot Chester Scott
1937-05-21 There Goes My Girl Dunn
1937-03-12 China Passage Joe Dugan
1937-02-19 Sea Devils Puggy
1937-02-05 They Wanted to Marry Jim Tyler
1937-01-08 We Who Are About to Die Slim Tolliver
1936-12-18 Night Waitress Martin Rhodes
1936-09-18 Don't Turn 'em Loose Joe Graves
1936-09-11 Walking on Air Joe
1936-04-30 Devil's Squadron Tex
1936-01-24 Strike Me Pink Butch Carson
1935-09-12 Red Salute Michael (Lefty) Jones
1935-05-15 Let 'em Have It Tex
1932-11-09 Wild Girl Vigilante (uncredited)