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Gordon Jones
Acting
1911-04-05 - Present
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
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McLintock!asMatt Douglas
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Master of the WorldasTalkative Townsman
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The Secret Life of Walter MittyasTubby Wadsworth
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Trigger, Jr.asSplinters
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Trail of Robin HoodasSplinters McGonigle
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A Foreign AffairasMilitary Police
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Big Jim McLainasOlaf
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The Shaggy DogasCaptain Scanlon, Police Chief
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The Green HornetasBritt Reid / The Green Hornet
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The Rise and Fall of Legs DiamondasPolice Sgt. Joe Cassidy
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Island in the SkyasWalrus
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Smoke SignalasCorporal Rogers
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Tokyo JoeasIdaho
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Easy LivingasBill 'Holly' Holloran
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Take the High Ground!asMoose (uncredited)
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The Perfect FurloughasMP "Sylvia"
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Flying TigersasAlabama Smith
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Mr. Soft TouchasMuggles (Uncredited)
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The Doctor Takes a WifeasO'Brien
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The Texas Rangers Ride AgainasRanger Radio Man (uncredited)
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Wild GirlasVigilante (uncredited)
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Night WaitressasMartin Rhodes
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Sea DevilsasPuggy
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Let 'em Have ItasTex
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You Belong to MeasRobert Andrews
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I Take This OathasSteve Hanagan
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Among the LivingasBill Oakley
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Battle of the Coral SeaasTorpedoman Bates
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Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry SeinfeldasSelf (archive footage)
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Woman They Almost LynchedasYankee Sergeant
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My Sister Eileenas'The Wreck' Loomis
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The Untamed BreedasHappy Keegan
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The Monster That Challenged the WorldasSheriff Josh Peters
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Black EagleasBenjy Laughton
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Dear WifeasTaxi Cab Driver
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Strike Me PinkasButch Carson
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The Feminine TouchasRubber-Legs Ryan
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Big Town CzarasChuck Hardy
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Big TimberasJocko
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Highways by Nightas'Footsy' Fogarty
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The Winning TeamasGeorge Glasheen
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Spring ReunionasJack Frazer
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Wagon TeamasMarshal Sam Taplin
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Red SaluteasMichael (Lefty) Jones
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Out West with the HardysasRay Holt
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Devil's SquadronasTex
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Walking on AirasJoe
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The Wistful Widow of Wagon GapasJake Frame
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Shoot-Out At Medicine BendasWill Clegg
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Youth Runs WildasTruck Driver (uncredited)
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North of the Great DivideasSplinters McGonagle
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Treasure of Ruby HillsasJack Voyle
Pride of the NavyasJoe Falcon
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Quick MoneyasBill Adams
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The Long ShotasJeff Clayton
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The Arizona CowboyasI.Q. Barton
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Invitation to HappinessasDutch Arnold (uncredited)
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Disputed PassageasBill Anderson
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Sound OffasCrockett
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Don't Turn 'em LooseasJoe Graves
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I Stand AccusedasBlackie
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Black MidnightasRoy
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Sunset in the WestasSplinters
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The Blonde from Singaporeas'Waffles' Billings
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The PalominoasBill Hennessey
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Heart of the RockiesasSplinters McGonigle
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Spoilers of the PlainsasSplinters
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We Who Are About to DieasSlim Tolliver
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Fight for Your LadyasMike Scanlon
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Up in the AirasTex Barton
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Live Fast, Die YoungasPop Winters
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China PassageasJoe Dugan
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The Outlaw StallionasWagner
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Sons of AdventureasAndy Baldwin
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There Goes My GirlasDunn
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Rich Man, Poor GirlasTom Grogan
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The Ghost of Crossbone CanyonasCurly Wolf
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Corky of Gasoline AlleyasElwood Martin
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Everything's DuckyasConroy
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The Big ShotasChester Scott
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Whispering CityasReporter
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They Wanted to MarryasJim Tyler
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Battle FlameasSgt. McKelvey
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Henry Goes ArizonaasTug Evans (uncredited)
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The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First?asMike the Cop (archive footage)
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Girl from HavanaasTubby Waters
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Belle of Old MexicoasTex Barnet
Gobs and GalsasCPO Mike Donovan