Gordon Jones (actor)

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Gordon Jones
Gordon Jones in I Take This Oath (1940)
Born(1912-04-05)April 5, 1912
Alden, Iowa, U.S.
DiedJune 20, 1963(1963-06-20) (aged 51)
Tarzana, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of California at Los Angeles[1]
OccupationActor
Years active1931–1963
SpouseLucile Van Winkle (1935–1940)[2]

Gordon Wynnivo Jones (April 5, 1912 – June 20, 1963)[3] 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.[4][5]

Career[edit]

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), Sidney Lanfield's Red Salute (1935), and the Eddie Cantor comedy Strike Me Pink (1935). By 1937, he had moved on to a contract at RKO Radio Pictures.

Gordon Jones was already established as a reliable character player, and had only a few leading roles in films: the horseracing story The Long Shot (1938), the police procedural I Take This Oath (1940) and, most prominently, the Universal serial The Green Hornet (1940), with Jones in the title role.

Jones held a reserve commission in the U. S. 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. By this time Jones had matured into a beefier screen presence for very physical character roles. He had outgrown his "genial leading man" status, but his stockier build suited him for comic antagonist roles, which meshed with the work of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Jones' association with the team began in The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) with the role of the film's comic villain, Jake Frame, and continued through their two television series The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Abbott and Costello Show. In the latter show, Jones played "Mike the Cop", the show's hulking authority figure. The program was produced for only two seasons, but ensured continued recognition for Jones via frequent reruns and a 2024 DVD release.

Jones resumed his association with John Wayne, appearing prominently in the John Wayne features Big Jim McLain (1952) and Island in the Sky (1953).

Jones also remained busy in films and on television throughout the 1950s. Beginning in 1950 he played Roy Rogers' affable sidekick in six Rogers westerns. Otherwise Jones usually played military or police officers. The films ranged from the sci-fi chiller The Monster That Challenged the World to the Tony Curtis/Janet Leigh sex comedy The Perfect Furlough, and the TV series ranged from The Real McCoys to The Rifleman. In 1956 Jones appeared as C. R. Tatum in the western TV series Cheyenne on the episode titled "The Last Train West." 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.

Selected filmography[edit]

References[edit]

Notes

  1. ^ "Famous Iowans - Gordon Jones | DesMoinesRegister.com". data.desmoinesregister.com.
  2. ^ "Hollywood Gossip Covers Very Wide Field, It Seems". St. Petersburg (Fla.) Evening Independent. February 22, 1940. p. 8. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  3. ^ Longden, Tom. "Famous Iowans - Gordon Jones". demoinesregister.com. Des Moines Register. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  4. ^ Lidz, Franz (January 7, 2011). "Float Like a Franchise, Sting Like a ..." New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
  5. ^ "The Green Hornet". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2011-03-28.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gordon Jones.
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