1911-04-05 ( 114 years old ) in Alden, Iowa, USA
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.
Movies
McLintock!
1963-11-12
Everything's Ducky
1961-12-20
Master of the World
1961-05-01
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
1960-02-03
Battle of the Coral Sea
1959-11-01
Battle Flame
1959-07-26
The Shaggy Dog
1959-03-19
The Perfect Furlough
1958-11-30
Live Fast, Die Young
1958-04-01
The Monster That Challenged the World
1957-06-14
Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend
1957-05-04
Spring Reunion
1957-03-01
Smoke Signal
1955-03-01
Treasure of Ruby Hills
1955-01-23
The Outlaw Stallion
1954-07-03
Take the High Ground!
1953-10-30
Island in the Sky
1953-09-05
Woman They Almost Lynched
1953-03-20
The Ghost of Crossbone Canyon
1952-11-01
Wagon Team
1952-09-29
Big Jim McLain
1952-08-30
The Winning Team
1952-06-20
Sound Off
1952-05-15
Gobs and Gals
1952-05-01
Corky of Gasoline Alley
1951-09-17
Heart of the Rockies
1951-03-29
Spoilers of the Plains
1951-02-02
Trail of Robin Hood
1950-12-15
North of the Great Divide
1950-11-15
Sunset in the West
1950-09-25
Big Timber
1950-09-10
Trigger, Jr.
1950-06-30
The Arizona Cowboy
1950-04-01
The Palomino
1950-03-18
Belle of Old Mexico
1950-03-01
Dear Wife
1949-11-15
Tokyo Joe
1949-10-26
Easy Living
1949-10-08
Black Midnight
1949-10-01
Mr. Soft Touch
1949-07-28
The Untamed Breed
1948-10-20
Black Eagle
1948-09-16
Sons of Adventure
1948-09-01
A Foreign Affair
1948-08-20
Whispering City
1947-11-20
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1947-10-08
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947-09-01
Youth Runs Wild
1944-09-01
Flying Tigers
1942-10-08
Highways by Night
1942-10-02
My Sister Eileen
1942-09-24
Among the Living
1941-12-12
You Belong to Me
1941-10-22
The Blonde from Singapore
1941-10-15
The Feminine Touch
1941-10-01
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
1940-12-13
Girl from Havana
1940-09-11
Up in the Air
1940-09-09
I Take This Oath
1940-05-20
The Doctor Takes a Wife
1940-04-25
The Green Hornet
1940-01-08
Henry Goes Arizona
1939-12-08
Disputed Passage
1939-10-25
Invitation to Happiness
1939-06-07
Big Town Czar
1939-05-03
Pride of the Navy
1939-01-23
The Long Shot
1939-01-06
Out West with the Hardys
1938-11-25
I Stand Accused
1938-10-29
Rich Man, Poor Girl
1938-08-12
Quick Money
1937-12-10
Fight for Your Lady
1937-11-05
The Big Shot
1937-07-23
There Goes My Girl
1937-05-21
China Passage
1937-03-12
Sea Devils
1937-02-19
They Wanted to Marry
1937-02-05
We Who Are About to Die
1937-01-08
Night Waitress
1936-12-18
Don't Turn 'em Loose
1936-09-18
Walking on Air
1936-09-11
Devil's Squadron
1936-04-30
Strike Me Pink
1936-01-24
Red Salute
1935-09-12
Let 'em Have It
1935-05-15
Wild Girl
1932-11-09
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