Gordon Jones
Gordon Jones
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
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
116
Gender
Male
Birthday
1911-04-05 (114 years old)
Place of Birth
Alden, Iowa, USA
Acting

2011

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

1994

Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld as Self (archive footage)

1963

McLintock! as Matt Douglas

1962

The Lucy Show as Charlie Vantassel

1961

Master of the World as Talkative Townsman

1961

Everything's Ducky as Conroy

1960

Surfside 6 as Not available

1960

The Case of the Dangerous Robin as Nels Bergstrom

1960

The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond as Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy

1959

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis as Not available

1959

Laramie as Not available

1959

Dennis the Menace as Not available

1959

Hawaiian Eye as Not available

1959

The Shaggy Dog as Captain Scanlon, Police Chief

1959

Battle of the Coral Sea as Torpedoman Bates

1959

Battle Flame as Sgt. McKelvey

1958

The Rifleman as Not available

1958

77 Sunset Strip as Not available

1958

The Perfect Furlough as MP "Sylvia"

1958

Live Fast, Die Young as Pop Winters

1957

Perry Mason as Deputy Gillis

1957

Have Gun, Will Travel as Not available

1957

Maverick as Not available

1957

Sugarfoot as Wasco Wolters

1957

Sugarfoot as Sheriff

1957

Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend as Will Clegg

1957

The Monster That Challenged the World as Sheriff Josh Peters

1957

Spring Reunion as Jack Frazer

1956

The Adventures of Jim Bowie as Not available

1955

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp as Not available

1955

Cheyenne as Not available

1955

Smoke Signal as Corporal Rogers

1955

Treasure of Ruby Hills as Jack Voyle

1954

Lassie as Not available

1954

The Outlaw Stallion as Wagner

1953

The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse as Not available

1953

I'm the Law as Not available

1953

Island in the Sky as Walrus

1953

Woman They Almost Lynched as Yankee Sergeant

1953

Take the High Ground! as Moose (uncredited)

1952

The Abbott and Costello Show as Mike Kelly

1952

Dangerous Assignment as Not available

1952

Cavalcade of America as Lt. Treusch

1952

Big Jim McLain as Olaf

1952

The Winning Team as George Glasheen

1952

Gobs and Gals as CPO Mike Donovan

1952

Sound Off as Crockett

1952

Wagon Team as Marshal Sam Taplin

1951

Racket Squad as Not available

1951

Heart of the Rockies as Splinters McGonigle

1951

Corky of Gasoline Alley as Elwood Martin

1951

Spoilers of the Plains as Splinters

1950

The Gene Autry Show as Not available

1950

The Palomino as Bill Hennessey

1950

Trail of Robin Hood as Splinters McGonigle

1950

Trigger, Jr. as Splinters

1950

North of the Great Divide as Splinters McGonagle

1950

Sunset in the West as Splinters

1950

Big Timber as Jocko

1950

The Arizona Cowboy as I.Q. Barton

1950

Belle of Old Mexico as Tex Barnet

1949

Tokyo Joe as Idaho

1949

Mr. Soft Touch as Muggles (Uncredited)

1949

Easy Living as Bill 'Holly' Holloran

1949

Dear Wife as Taxi Cab Driver

1949

Black Midnight as Roy

1948

A Foreign Affair as Military Police

1948

Sons of Adventure as Andy Baldwin

1948

The Untamed Breed as Happy Keegan

1948

Black Eagle as Benjy Laughton

1947

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as Tubby Wadsworth

1947

Whispering City as Reporter

1944

Youth Runs Wild as Truck Driver (uncredited)

1942

Flying Tigers as Alabama Smith

1942

My Sister Eileen as 'The Wreck' Loomis

1942

Highways by Night as 'Footsy' Fogarty

1941

You Belong to Me as Robert Andrews

1941

The Feminine Touch as Rubber-Legs Ryan

1941

Among the Living as Bill Oakley

1941

The Blonde from Singapore as 'Waffles' Billings

1940

The Green Hornet as Britt Reid / The Green Hornet

1940

The Doctor Takes a Wife as O'Brien

1940

The Texas Rangers Ride Again as Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)

1940

I Take This Oath as Steve Hanagan

1940

Up in the Air as Tex Barton

1940

Girl from Havana as Tubby Waters

1939

The Long Shot as Jeff Clayton

1939

Henry Goes Arizona as Tug Evans (uncredited)

1939

Big Town Czar as Chuck Hardy

1939

Invitation to Happiness as Dutch Arnold (uncredited)

1939

Disputed Passage as Bill Anderson

1939

Pride of the Navy as Joe Falcon

1938

Rich Man, Poor Girl as Tom Grogan

1938

Out West with the Hardys as Ray Holt

1938

I Stand Accused as Blackie

1937

Fight for Your Lady as Mike Scanlon

1937

We Who Are About to Die as Slim Tolliver

1937

The Big Shot as Chester Scott

1937

Quick Money as Bill Adams

1937

Sea Devils as Puggy

1937

China Passage as Joe Dugan

1937

There Goes My Girl as Dunn

1937

They Wanted to Marry as Jim Tyler

1936

Night Waitress as Martin Rhodes

1936

Strike Me Pink as Butch Carson

1936

Walking on Air as Joe

1936

Devil's Squadron as Tex

1936

Don't Turn 'em Loose as Joe Graves

1935

Let 'em Have It as Tex

1935

Red Salute as Michael (Lefty) Jones

1932

Wild Girl as Vigilante (uncredited)