Gordon Jones
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.
Fotos
Películas (90)
The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's On First?
2011 · Mike the Cop (archive footage)
Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld
1994 · Self (archive footage)
McLintock!
1963 · Matt Douglas
Everything's Ducky
1961 · Conroy
Master of the World
1961 · Talkative Townsman
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
1960 · Police Sgt. Joe Cassidy
Battle of the Coral Sea
1959 · Torpedoman Bates
Battle Flame
1959 · Sgt. McKelvey
The Shaggy Dog
1959 · Captain Scanlon
The Perfect Furlough
1958 · Sylvia
Live Fast, Die Young
1958 · Pop Winters
The Monster That Challenged the World
1957 · Sheriff Josh Peters
Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend
1957 · Pvt. Wilbur Clegg
Spring Reunion
1957 · Jack Frazer
Smoke Signal
1955 · Corporal Rogers
Treasure of Ruby Hills
1955 · Jack Voyle
The Outlaw Stallion
1954 · Wagner
Take the High Ground!
1953 · Moose (uncredited)
Island in the Sky
1953 · Walrus
Woman They Almost Lynched
1953 · Yankee Sergeant
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
1952 · Curly Wolf
Wagon Team
1952 · Marshal Sam Taplin
Big Jim McLain
1952 · Olaf
The Winning Team
1952 · George Glasheen
Sound Off
1952 · Crockett
Gobs and Gals
1952 · CPO Mike Donovan
Corky of Gasoline Alley
1951 · Elwood Martin
Heart of the Rockies
1951 · Splinters McGonigle
Spoilers of the Plains
1951 · Splinters
Trail of Robin Hood
1950 · Splinters McGonigle
North of the Great Divide
1950 · Splinters McGonagle
Sunset in the West
1950 · Splinters
Big Timber
1950 · Jocko
Trigger, Jr.
1950 · Splinters
The Arizona Cowboy
1950 · I.Q. Barton
The Palomino
1950 · Bill Hennessey
Belle of Old Mexico
1950 · Tex Barnet
Dear Wife
1949 · Taxi Cab Driver
Tokyo Joe
1949 · Idaho
Easy Living
1949 · Bill 'Holly' Holloran
Black Midnight
1949 · Roy
Mr. Soft Touch
1949 · Muggles (Uncredited)
The Untamed Breed
1948 · Happy Keegan
Black Eagle
1948 · Benjy Laughton
Sons of Adventure
1948 · Andy Baldwin
A Foreign Affair
1948 · Military Police
Whispering City
1947 · Reporter
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1947 · Jake Frame
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947 · Tubby Wadsworth
Youth Runs Wild
1944 · Truck Driver (uncredited)
Flying Tigers
1942 · Alabama Smith
Highways by Night
1942 · 'Footsy' Fogarty
My Sister Eileen
1942 · 'The Wreck' Loomis
Among the Living
1941 · Bill Oakley
You Belong to Me
1941 · Robert Andrews
The Blonde from Singapore
1941 · 'Waffles' Billings
The Feminine Touch
1941 · Rubber-Legs Ryan
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
1940 · Ranger Radio Man (uncredited)
Girl from Havana
1940 · Tubby Waters
Up in the Air
1940 · Tex Barton
I Take This Oath
1940 · Steve Hanagan
The Doctor Takes a Wife
1940 · O'Brien
The Green Hornet
1940 · Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
Henry Goes Arizona
1939 · Tug Evans (uncredited)
Disputed Passage
1939 · Bill Anderson
When Tomorrow Comes
1939 · Radio Technician (uncredited)
Invitation to Happiness
1939 · Dutch Arnold (uncredited)
Big Town Czar
1939 · Chuck Hardy
Pride of the Navy
1939 · Joe Falcon
The Long Shot
1939 · Jeff Clayton
Out West with the Hardys
1938 · Ray Holt
I Stand Accused
1938 · Blackie
Rich Man, Poor Girl
1938 · Tom Grogan
Quick Money
1937 · Bill Adams
Fight for Your Lady
1937 · Mike Scanlon
The Big Shot
1937 · Chester Scott
There Goes My Girl
1937 · Dunn
China Passage
1937 · Joe Dugan
Sea Devils
1937 · Puggy
They Wanted to Marry
1937 · Jim Tyler
We Who Are About to Die
1937 · Slim Tolliver
Night Waitress
1936 · Martin Rhodes
Don't Turn 'em Loose
1936 · Joe Graves
Walking on Air
1936 · Joe
Devil's Squadron
1936 · Tex
Strike Me Pink
1936 · Butch Carson
Red Salute
1935 · Michael (Lefty) Jones
Let 'em Have It
1935 · Tex
Wild Girl
1932 · Vigilante (uncredited)
Three Rogues
1931 · Teamster (uncredited)
Series (27)
The Lucy Show
1962 · Charlie Vantassel
The Case of the Dangerous Robin
1960 · Nels Bergstrom
Surfside 6
1960
Hawaiian Eye
1959
Dennis the Menace
1959
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
1959
Laramie
1959
77 Sunset Strip
1958
The Rifleman
1958
Maverick
1957
Perry Mason
1957 · Deputy Gillis
Sugarfoot
1957 · Wasco Wolters, Sheriff
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
1957 · Mike Gower, Joel Finlay
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
1956
Cheyenne
1955
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
1955
The Wonderful World of Disney
1954 · Captain Scanlon - Chief of Police
Lassie
1954
The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse
1953
I'm the Law
1953
The Abbott and Costello Show
1952 · Mike Kelly
Cavalcade of America
1952 · Lt. Treusch
Dangerous Assignment
1952
Racket Squad
1951
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
1951 · Curly Wolf
The Gene Autry Show
1950