Gordon Jones
male

Born on April 05, 1911 (114 years old)
Passed Away on June 20, 1963
From Alden, Iowa, USA
Known for Acting
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.
Cast Credits
- 2011
- 1994
- 1963
- 1962
- 1961
- 1960
- 1959
- 1958
- 1957
The Monster That Challenged the World
as
Sheriff Josh Peters
1957
Spring Reunion
as
Jack Frazer
1957
Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend
as
Will Clegg
1957
Perry Mason
as
Deputy Gillis
1957
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
as
Mike Gower
1957
Sugarfoot
as
Wasco Wolters
1957
Maverick
1957
Sugarfoot
as
Sheriff
1957
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
as
Joel Finlay
1957
- 1956
- 1955
- 1954
- 1953
- 1952
Sound Off
as
Crockett
1952
The Winning Team
as
George Glasheen
1952
- no image
Gobs and Gals
as
CPO Mike Donovan
1952
Wagon Team
as
Marshal Sam Taplin
1952
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
as
Curly Wolf
1952
Big Jim McLain
as
Olaf
1952
Cavalcade of America
as
Lt. Treusch
1952
Dangerous Assignment
1952
The Abbott and Costello Show
as
Mike Kelly
1952
- 1951
- 1950
Belle of Old Mexico
as
Tex Barnet
1950
Trigger, Jr.
as
Splinters
1950
The Arizona Cowboy
as
I.Q. Barton
1950
Trail of Robin Hood
as
Splinters McGonigle
1950
The Palomino
as
Bill Hennessey
1950
North of the Great Divide
as
Splinters McGonagle
1950
Sunset in the West
as
Splinters
1950
Big Timber
as
Jocko
1950
The Gene Autry Show
1950
- 1949
- 1948
- 1947
- 1944
- 1942
- 1941
- 1940
- 1939
- 1938
- 1937
- 1936
- 1935
- 1932