Gordon Jones

Actor
BirthdayApr 5, 1911 (52 years old)
DeathdayJun 20, 1963
Place of birthAlden, Iowa, USA
GenderMale

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

Matt Douglas

Nov 12, 1963

Military Police

Aug 20, 1948

Tubby Wadsworth

Sep 1, 1947

Deputy Gillis

Sep 21, 1957

Captain Scanlon, Police Chief

Mar 19, 1959

Talkative Townsman

May 1, 1961

Sep 12, 1954

Walrus

Sep 5, 1953

Sheriff Josh Peters

Jun 14, 1957

Alabama Smith

Oct 8, 1942

Sep 30, 1958

Charlie Vantassel

Oct 1, 1962

Sep 14, 1957

Idaho

Oct 26, 1949

Sep 22, 1957

Oct 4, 1959

Bill Oakley

Dec 12, 1941

Olaf

Aug 30, 1952

Oct 10, 1958

Torpedoman Bates

Nov 1, 1959

Matt Douglas

Nov 12, 1963

Military Police

Aug 20, 1948

Tubby Wadsworth

Sep 1, 1947

Deputy Gillis

Sep 21, 1957

Captain Scanlon, Police Chief

Mar 19, 1959

Talkative Townsman

May 1, 1961

Acting


Participated in 87 movies, 26 TV series

2011

Mike the Cop (archive footage)


1963

Matt Douglas


1962

Charlie Vantassel


1961


1961

Talkative Townsman




1960

Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy


1959

Torpedoman Bates



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