Gordon Jones

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.

Acting

1963

McLintock!
Movie

Matt Douglas

1961

Master of the World
Movie

Talkative Townsman

1960

1960

1959

1959

1959

The Shaggy Dog
Movie

Captain Scanlon, Police Chief

1958

1957

Perry Mason
Tv

Deputy Gillis

1957

1957

1955

Smoke Signal
Movie

Corporal Rogers

1954

Lassie
Tv

Unknown

1953

Take the High Ground!
Movie

Moose (uncredited)

1953

1952

Wagon Team
Movie

Marshal Sam Taplin

1952

The Winning Team
Movie

George Glasheen

1952

Gobs and Gals
Movie

CPO Mike Donovan

1950

Trail of Robin Hood
Movie

Splinters McGonigle

1949

Easy Living
Movie

Bill 'Holly' Holloran

1949

Mr. Soft Touch
Movie

Muggles (Uncredited)

1948

1948

Black Eagle
Movie

Benjy Laughton

1948

A Foreign Affair
Movie

Military Police

1944

Youth Runs Wild
Movie

Truck Driver (uncredited)

1942

Flying Tigers
Movie

Alabama Smith

1942

My Sister Eileen
Movie

'The Wreck' Loomis

1941

You Belong to Me
Movie

Robert Andrews

1941

The Feminine Touch
Movie

Rubber-Legs Ryan

1940

The Texas Rangers Ride Again
Movie

Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)

1940

The Green Hornet
Movie

Britt Reid / The Green Hornet

1939

When Tomorrow Comes
Movie

Radio Technician (uncredited)

1937

1932

Wild Girl
Movie

Vigilante (uncredited)

1931

Three Rogues
Movie

Teamster (uncredited)

1931

Three Rogues
Movie

Teamster (uncredited)

1931

Three Rogues
Movie

Teamster (uncredited)

Infos

Full Name
Gordon Jones
Gender
Male
Date of Birth
4/5/1911
Date of Death
6/20/1963
Also Known As

Gordon Wynnivo Jones

Gordon W. Jones