Gordon Jones
Acting
Born: April 5, 1911 · Alden, Iowa, USA
Died: June 20, 1963 (aged 52)
Highest Rated
Biography
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
McLintock!
1963
A Foreign Affair
1948
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947
Perry Mason
1957
The Shaggy Dog
1959
Master of the World
1961
Island in the Sky
1953
Lassie
1954
Flying Tigers
1942
The Monster That Challenged the World
1957
The Lucy Show
1962
The Rifleman
1958
Photos (2)
Movies (88)
McLintock!
Matt Douglas
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Tubby Wadsworth
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy
A Foreign Affair
Military Police
We Who Are About to Die
Slim Tolliver
Woman They Almost Lynched
Yankee Sergeant
Master of the World
Talkative Townsman
The Monster That Challenged the World
Sheriff Josh Peters
The Green Hornet
Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
Island in the Sky
Walrus
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
Jake Frame
The Shaggy Dog
Captain Scanlon
The Perfect Furlough
Sylvia
Live Fast, Die Young
Pop Winters
Take the High Ground!
Moose (uncredited)
Smoke Signal
Corporal Rogers
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
Curly Wolf
North of the Great Divide
Splinters McGonagle
Mr. Soft Touch
Muggles (Uncredited)
The Doctor Takes a Wife
O'Brien
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)
Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend
Pvt. Wilbur Clegg
Flying Tigers
Alabama Smith
You Belong to Me
Robert Andrews
Treasure of Ruby Hills
Jack Voyle
The Blonde from Singapore
'Waffles' Billings
Corky of Gasoline Alley
Elwood Martin
I Take This Oath
Steve Hanagan
Battle of the Coral Sea
Torpedoman Bates
Trail of Robin Hood
Splinters McGonigle
Rich Man, Poor Girl
Tom Grogan
Up in the Air
Tex Barton
When Tomorrow Comes
Radio Technician (uncredited)
Don't Turn 'em Loose
Joe Graves
Out West with the Hardys
Ray Holt
Big Jim McLain
Olaf
Heart of the Rockies
Splinters McGonigle
Tokyo Joe
Idaho
Wild Girl
Vigilante (uncredited)
Spring Reunion
Jack Frazer
Invitation to Happiness
Dutch Arnold (uncredited)
Spoilers of the Plains
Splinters
Fight for Your Lady
Mike Scanlon
Let 'em Have It
Tex
Black Midnight
Roy
My Sister Eileen
'The Wreck' Loomis
Youth Runs Wild
Truck Driver (uncredited)
Sunset in the West
Splinters
Night Waitress
Martin Rhodes
Easy Living
Bill 'Holly' Holloran
The Winning Team
George Glasheen
They Wanted to Marry
Jim Tyler
There Goes My Girl
Dunn
Belle of Old Mexico
Tex Barnet
Disputed Passage
Bill Anderson
The Feminine Touch
Rubber-Legs Ryan
Strike Me Pink
Butch Carson
China Passage
Joe Dugan
Big Town Czar
Chuck Hardy
Trigger, Jr.
Splinters
Among the Living
Bill Oakley
Sea Devils
Puggy
The Long Shot
Jeff Clayton
The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First?
Mike the Cop (archive footage)
Girl from Havana
Tubby Waters
The Untamed Breed
Happy Keegan
Wagon Team
Marshal Sam Taplin
The Arizona Cowboy
I.Q. Barton
Gobs and Gals
CPO Mike Donovan
Three Rogues
Teamster (uncredited)
The Outlaw Stallion
Wagner
Dear Wife
Taxi Cab Driver
Red Salute
Michael (Lefty) Jones
Walking on Air
Joe
Sound Off
Crockett
Highways by Night
'Footsy' Fogarty
Henry Goes Arizona
Tug Evans (uncredited)
Big Timber
Jocko
The Palomino
Bill Hennessey
The Big Shot
Chester Scott
Everything's Ducky
Conroy
Battle Flame
Sgt. McKelvey
Quick Money
Bill Adams
Sons of Adventure
Andy Baldwin
Devil's Squadron
Tex
I Stand Accused
Blackie
Whispering City
Reporter
Black Eagle
Benjy Laughton
TV Shows (28)
Perry Mason
Deputy Gillis · 1 eps
Maverick
2 eps
The Rifleman
2 eps
Have Gun, Will Travel
1 eps
Lassie
1 eps
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
1 eps
Cheyenne
1 eps
The Lucy Show
Charlie Vantassel · 1 eps
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
1 eps
77 Sunset Strip
1 eps
Hawaiian Eye
1 eps
Surfside 6
1 eps
Laramie
1 eps
Sugarfoot
Wasco Wolters · 1 eps
Sugarfoot
Sheriff · 1 eps
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Mike Gower · 1 eps
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Joel Finlay · 1 eps
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
1 eps
Dennis the Menace
1 eps
The Abbott and Costello Show
Mike Kelly · 33 eps
The Gene Autry Show
2 eps
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Curly Wolf · 1 eps
Cavalcade of America
Lt. Treusch · 1 eps
Racket Squad
1 eps
The Wonderful World of Disney
Captain Scanlon - Chief of Police · 1 eps
The Case of the Dangerous Robin
Nels Bergstrom · 1 eps
Dangerous Assignment
1 eps
I'm the Law
1 eps
