Gordon Jones
Known for: Acting
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.
Filmography
Series
Perry Mason
Deputy Gillis
1957
Series
Lassie
1954
Series
The Rifleman
1958
Series
Maverick
1957
Series
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Series
The Lucy Show
Charlie Vantassel
1962
Series
Cheyenne
1955
Series
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
1955
Series
Hawaiian Eye
1959
Series
Laramie
1959
Series
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
1959
Series
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Mike Gower
1957
Series
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Joel Finlay
1957
Series
Surfside 6
1960
Series
Dennis the Menace
1959
Series
Sugarfoot
Wasco Wolters
1957
Series
Sugarfoot
Sheriff
1957
Series
77 Sunset Strip
1958
Series
The Abbott and Costello Show
Mike Kelly
1952
Series
The Gene Autry Show
1950
Series
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
1956
The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse
1953
Series
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Curly Wolf
1951
Series
Dangerous Assignment
1952
Series
Racket Squad
1951
Series
Cavalcade of America
Lt. Treusch
1952
Series
The Wonderful World of Disney
Captain Scanlon - Chief of Police
1954
Film
McLintock!
Matt Douglas
1963
Series
The Case of the Dangerous Robin
Nels Bergstrom
1960
Series
I'm the Law
1953
Film
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Tubby Wadsworth
1947
Film
The Shaggy Dog
Captain Scanlon
1959
Film
Flying Tigers
Alabama Smith
1942
Film
The Perfect Furlough
Sylvia
1958
Film
A Foreign Affair
Military Police
1948
Film
My Sister Eileen
'The Wreck' Loomis
1942
Film
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy
1960
Film
The Monster That Challenged the World
Sheriff Josh Peters
1957
Film
Tokyo Joe
Idaho
1949
Film
Spring Reunion
Jack Frazer
1957
Film
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
Curly Wolf
1952
Film
Master of the World
Talkative Townsman
1961
Film
Island in the Sky
Walrus
1953
Film
Big Jim McLain
Olaf
1952
Film
Treasure of Ruby Hills
Jack Voyle
1955
Film
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
Jake Frame
1947
Film
Night Waitress
Martin Rhodes
1936
Film
Wild Girl
Vigilante (uncredited)
1932
Film
When Tomorrow Comes
Radio Technician (uncredited)
1939
Film
The Blonde from Singapore
'Waffles' Billings
1941
Film
Smoke Signal
Corporal Rogers
1955
Film
Battle of the Coral Sea
Torpedoman Bates
1959
Film
Corky of Gasoline Alley
Elwood Martin
1951
Film
Mr. Soft Touch
Muggles (Uncredited)
1949
Film
Take the High Ground!
Moose (uncredited)
1953
Film
You Belong to Me
Robert Andrews
1941
Film
Woman They Almost Lynched
Yankee Sergeant
1953
Film
We Who Are About to Die
Slim Tolliver
1937
Film
Among the Living
Bill Oakley
1941
Film
Invitation to Happiness
Dutch Arnold (uncredited)
1939
Film
Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend
Pvt. Wilbur Clegg
1957
Film
Strike Me Pink
Butch Carson
1936
Film
I Take This Oath
Steve Hanagan
1940
Film
The Doctor Takes a Wife
O'Brien
1940
Film
Girl from Havana
Tubby Waters
1940
Film
The Winning Team
George Glasheen
1952
Film
Easy Living
Bill 'Holly' Holloran
1949
Film
Sea Devils
Puggy
1937
Film
Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld
Self (archive footage)
1994
Film
The Arizona Cowboy
I.Q. Barton
1950
Film
Fight for Your Lady
Mike Scanlon
1937
Film
The Long Shot
Jeff Clayton
1939
Film
Live Fast, Die Young
Pop Winters
1958
Film
Red Salute
Michael (Lefty) Jones
1935
Film
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)
1940
Film
Out West with the Hardys
Ray Holt
1938
Film
China Passage
Joe Dugan
1937
Film
Gobs and Gals
CPO Mike Donovan
1952
Film
Trigger, Jr.
Splinters
1950
Film
The Green Hornet
Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
1940
Film
Trail of Robin Hood
Splinters McGonigle
1950
Film
Youth Runs Wild
Truck Driver (uncredited)
1944
Film
The Untamed Breed
Happy Keegan
1948
Film
Battle Flame
Sgt. McKelvey
1959
Film
Heart of the Rockies
Splinters McGonigle
1951
Film
Highways by Night
'Footsy' Fogarty
1942
Film
Whispering City
Reporter
1947
Film
Disputed Passage
Bill Anderson
1939
Film
Sound Off
Crockett
1952
Film
Quick Money
Bill Adams
1937
Film
Walking on Air
Joe
1936
Film
Devil's Squadron
Tex
1936
Film
North of the Great Divide
Splinters McGonagle
1950
Film
The Feminine Touch
Rubber-Legs Ryan
1941
Film
Dear Wife
Taxi Cab Driver
1949
Film
Sunset in the West
Splinters
1950
Film
Henry Goes Arizona
Tug Evans (uncredited)
1939
Film
Rich Man, Poor Girl
Tom Grogan
1938
Film
The Palomino
Bill Hennessey
1950
Film
Sons of Adventure
Andy Baldwin
1948
Film
Let 'em Have It
Tex
1935
Film
Don't Turn 'em Loose
Joe Graves
1936
Film
Black Midnight
Roy
1949
Film
Up in the Air
Tex Barton
1940
Film
Belle of Old Mexico
Tex Barnet
1950
Film
They Wanted to Marry
Jim Tyler
1937
Film
Three Rogues
Teamster (uncredited)
1931
Film
Wagon Team
Marshal Sam Taplin
1952
Film
Everything's Ducky
Conroy
1961
Film
Big Town Czar
Chuck Hardy
1939
Film
Big Timber
Jocko
1950
Film
The Outlaw Stallion
Wagner
1954
Film
The Big Shot
Chester Scott
1937
Film
There Goes My Girl
Dunn
1937
Film
I Stand Accused
Blackie
1938
Film
Black Eagle
Benjy Laughton
1948
Film
The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First?
Mike the Cop (archive footage)
2011
Film
Spoilers of the Plains
Splinters
1951
Pride of the Navy
Joe Falcon
1939