
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

McLintock!asMatt Douglas

Master of the WorldasTalkative Townsman

The Secret Life of Walter MittyasTubby Wadsworth

Trigger, Jr.asSplinters

Trail of Robin HoodasSplinters McGonigle

A Foreign AffairasMilitary Police

Big Jim McLainasOlaf

The Shaggy DogasCaptain Scanlon, Police Chief

The Green HornetasBritt Reid / The Green Hornet

The Rise and Fall of Legs DiamondasPolice Sgt. Joe Cassidy

Island in the SkyasWalrus

Smoke SignalasCorporal Rogers

Tokyo JoeasIdaho

Easy LivingasBill 'Holly' Holloran

Take the High Ground!asMoose (uncredited)

The Perfect FurloughasMP "Sylvia"

Flying TigersasAlabama Smith

Mr. Soft TouchasMuggles (Uncredited)

The Doctor Takes a WifeasO'Brien

The Texas Rangers Ride AgainasRanger Radio Man (uncredited)

Wild GirlasVigilante (uncredited)

Night WaitressasMartin Rhodes

Sea DevilsasPuggy

Let 'em Have ItasTex

You Belong to MeasRobert Andrews

I Take This OathasSteve Hanagan

Among the LivingasBill Oakley

Battle of the Coral SeaasTorpedoman Bates

Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry SeinfeldasSelf (archive footage)

Woman They Almost LynchedasYankee Sergeant

My Sister Eileenas'The Wreck' Loomis

The Untamed BreedasHappy Keegan

The Monster That Challenged the WorldasSheriff Josh Peters

Black EagleasBenjy Laughton

Dear WifeasTaxi Cab Driver

Strike Me PinkasButch Carson

The Feminine TouchasRubber-Legs Ryan

Big Town CzarasChuck Hardy

Big TimberasJocko

Highways by Nightas'Footsy' Fogarty

The Winning TeamasGeorge Glasheen

Spring ReunionasJack Frazer

Wagon TeamasMarshal Sam Taplin

Red SaluteasMichael (Lefty) Jones

Out West with the HardysasRay Holt

Devil's SquadronasTex

Walking on AirasJoe

The Wistful Widow of Wagon GapasJake Frame

Shoot-Out At Medicine BendasWill Clegg

Youth Runs WildasTruck Driver (uncredited)

North of the Great DivideasSplinters McGonagle

Treasure of Ruby HillsasJack Voyle
Pride of the NavyasJoe Falcon

Quick MoneyasBill Adams

The Long ShotasJeff Clayton

The Arizona CowboyasI.Q. Barton

Invitation to HappinessasDutch Arnold (uncredited)

Disputed PassageasBill Anderson

Sound OffasCrockett

Don't Turn 'em LooseasJoe Graves

I Stand AccusedasBlackie

Black MidnightasRoy

Sunset in the WestasSplinters

The Blonde from Singaporeas'Waffles' Billings

The PalominoasBill Hennessey

Heart of the RockiesasSplinters McGonigle

Spoilers of the PlainsasSplinters

We Who Are About to DieasSlim Tolliver

Fight for Your LadyasMike Scanlon

Up in the AirasTex Barton

Live Fast, Die YoungasPop Winters

China PassageasJoe Dugan

The Outlaw StallionasWagner

Sons of AdventureasAndy Baldwin

There Goes My GirlasDunn

Rich Man, Poor GirlasTom Grogan

The Ghost of Crossbone CanyonasCurly Wolf

Corky of Gasoline AlleyasElwood Martin

Everything's DuckyasConroy

The Big ShotasChester Scott

Whispering CityasReporter

They Wanted to MarryasJim Tyler

Battle FlameasSgt. McKelvey

Henry Goes ArizonaasTug Evans (uncredited)

The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First?asMike the Cop (archive footage)

Girl from HavanaasTubby Waters

Belle of Old MexicoasTex Barnet
Gobs and GalsasCPO Mike Donovan