CINEFILER

Gordon Jones

Born
April 5, 1911
Died
June 20, 1963
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
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
(1947)
Tubby Wadsworth
McLintock!
(1963)
Matt Douglas
A Foreign Affair
(1948)
Military Police
Tokyo Joe
(1949)
Idaho
Master of the World
(1961)
Talkative Townsman
Flying Tigers
(1942)
Alabama Smith
The Shaggy Dog
(1959)
Captain Scanlon, Police Chief
Smoke Signal
(1955)
Corporal Rogers
Full Filmography
Acting
Wild Girl
(1932)
Vigilante (uncredited)
Let 'em Have It
(1935)
Tex
Red Salute
(1935)
Michael (Lefty) Jones
Strike Me Pink
(1936)
Butch Carson
Night Waitress
(1936)
Martin Rhodes
Walking on Air
(1936)
Joe
Devil's Squadron
(1936)
Tex
Don't Turn 'em Loose
(1936)
Joe Graves
Sea Devils
(1937)
Puggy
Fight for Your Lady
(1937)
Mike Scanlon
They Wanted to Marry
(1937)
Jim Tyler
Quick Money
(1937)
Bill Adams
There Goes My Girl
(1937)
Dunn
We Who Are About to Die
(1937)
Slim Tolliver
The Big Shot
(1937)
Chester Scott
China Passage
(1937)
Joe Dugan
Rich Man, Poor Girl
(1938)
Tom Grogan
Out West with the Hardys
(1938)
Ray Holt
I Stand Accused
(1938)
Blackie
The Long Shot
(1939)
Jeff Clayton
Invitation to Happiness
(1939)
Dutch Arnold (uncredited)
Henry Goes Arizona
(1939)
Tug Evans (uncredited)
Pride of the Navy
(1939)
Joe Falcon
Disputed Passage
(1939)
Bill Anderson
Big Town Czar
(1939)
Chuck Hardy
Up in the Air
(1940)
Tex Barton
I Take This Oath
(1940)
Steve Hanagan
The Doctor Takes a Wife
(1940)
O'Brien
Girl from Havana
(1940)
Tubby Waters
The Green Hornet
(1940)
Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
(1940)
Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)
Among the Living
(1941)
Bill Oakley
The Feminine Touch
(1941)
Rubber-Legs Ryan
The Blonde from Singapore
(1941)
'Waffles' Billings
You Belong to Me
(1941)
Robert Andrews
My Sister Eileen
(1942)
'The Wreck' Loomis
Flying Tigers
(1942)
Alabama Smith
Highways by Night
(1942)
'Footsy' Fogarty
Youth Runs Wild
(1944)
Truck Driver (uncredited)
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
(1947)
Jake Frame
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
(1947)
Tubby Wadsworth
Whispering City
(1947)
Reporter
The Untamed Breed
(1948)
Happy Keegan
Black Eagle
(1948)
Benjy Laughton
Sons of Adventure
(1948)
Andy Baldwin
A Foreign Affair
(1948)
Military Police
Mr. Soft Touch
(1949)
Muggles (Uncredited)
Tokyo Joe
(1949)
Idaho
Easy Living
(1949)
Bill 'Holly' Holloran
Black Midnight
(1949)
Roy
Dear Wife
(1949)
Taxi Cab Driver
Trigger, Jr.
(1950)
Splinters
The Arizona Cowboy
(1950)
I.Q. Barton
Trail of Robin Hood
(1950)
Splinters McGonigle
The Palomino
(1950)
Bill Hennessey
North of the Great Divide
(1950)
Splinters McGonagle
Sunset in the West
(1950)
Splinters
Big Timber
(1950)
Jocko
Belle of Old Mexico
(1950)
Tex Barnet
Spoilers of the Plains
(1951)
Splinters
Corky of Gasoline Alley
(1951)
Elwood Martin
Heart of the Rockies
(1951)
Splinters McGonigle
Sound Off
(1952)
Crockett
The Winning Team
(1952)
George Glasheen
Gobs and Gals
(1952)
CPO Mike Donovan
Wagon Team
(1952)
Marshal Sam Taplin
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
(1952)
Curly Wolf
Big Jim McLain
(1952)
Olaf
Island in the Sky
(1953)
Walrus
Woman They Almost Lynched
(1953)
Yankee Sergeant
Take the High Ground!
(1953)
Moose (uncredited)
The Outlaw Stallion
(1954)
Wagner
Treasure of Ruby Hills
(1955)
Jack Voyle
Smoke Signal
(1955)
Corporal Rogers
The Monster That Challenged the World
(1957)
Sheriff Josh Peters
Spring Reunion
(1957)
Jack Frazer
Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend
(1957)
Will Clegg
The Perfect Furlough
(1958)
MP "Sylvia"
Live Fast, Die Young
(1958)
Pop Winters
Battle of the Coral Sea
(1959)
Torpedoman Bates
The Shaggy Dog
(1959)
Captain Scanlon, Police Chief
Battle Flame
(1959)
Sgt. McKelvey
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
(1960)
Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy
Everything's Ducky
(1961)
Conroy
Master of the World
(1961)
Talkative Townsman
McLintock!
(1963)
Matt Douglas
The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First?
(2011)
Mike The Cop
Data provided by TMDB