Gordon Jones
Encyclopedia
Gordon Jones was an American character actor
who became best known as The Green Hornet
in the first of two movie serials based on that old-time radio
program.
Jones was well-known for his role as Mike the Cop on the classic The Abbott and Costello Show
. 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
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
who became best known as The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
in the first of two movie serials based on that old-time radio
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
program.
Jones was well-known for his role as Mike the Cop on the classic The Abbott and Costello Show
The Abbott and Costello Show
The Abbott and Costello Show is an American television sitcom starring the popular comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello that premiered in syndication in the fall of 1952 and ran until May 1954....
. He also starred with Mitzi Green
Mitzi Green
Mitzi Green was an American child actress for Paramount and RKO, in the early talkie era...
and Virginia Gibson
Virginia Gibson
Virginia Gibson is an American dancer, singer and actress of film, television and musical theatre.-Career:...
in the short-lived TV sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
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
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...
Selected filmography
- CimarronCimarron (1931 film)Cimarron is a 1931 Pre-Code film directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron. It won three Academy Awards.-Background:...
(19311931 in film-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
) (uncredited) - Out West with the Hardys (19381938 in filmThe year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
) - The Green HornetThe Green Hornet (serial)The Green Hornet is a Universal movie serial based on The Green Hornet radio series by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker.-Synopsis:...
(19401940 in filmThe year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
) - You Belong to MeYou Belong to Me (1941 film)You Belong to Me is a 1941 American romantic comedy directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Good Morning, Doctor.-Plot:...
(19411941 in filmThe year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...
) - The Feminine Touch (1941)
- The Blonde from SingaporeThe Blonde from SingaporeThe Blonde from Singapore is a 1941 American adventure film directed by Edward Dmytryk.-Cast:* Florence Rice as Mary Brooks* Leif Erickson as Terry Prescott* Gordon Jones as 'Waffles' Billings* Don Beddoe as Sgt...
(1941) - My Sister EileenMy Sister Eileen (1942 film)My Sister Eileen is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Alexander Hall. The screenplay by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov is based on their 1940 play of the same title, which was inspired by a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney originally published in The New...
(19421942 in filmThe year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...
) - Flying TigersFlying Tigers (film)Flying Tigers is a 1942 black-and-white war film, starring John Wayne and John Carroll as mercenary fighter pilots fighting the Japanese in China prior to the U.S. entry into World War II....
(1942) - Thirty Seconds Over TokyoThirty Seconds over TokyoThirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film. It is based on the true story of America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan four months after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist. The screenplay by...
(19441944 in filmThe year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....
) - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (19471947 in filmThe year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...
) - The Wistful Widow of Wagon GapThe Wistful Widow of Wagon GapThe Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap is a 1947 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.-Plot:Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are traveling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while enroute to California. During the stopover, a notorious criminal, Fred Hawkins, is murdered, and...
(1947) - Mr. Soft TouchMr. Soft TouchMr. Soft Touch is a 1949 film about a man on the run from the Mob. It stars Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes.-Plot:Polish American Joe Miracle returns from fighting in World War II, only to find his San Francisco nightclub under the control of the Mob, and his friend and partner Leo missing and...
(19491949 in filmThe year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
) - Easy LivingEasy Living (1949 film)Easy Living is a 1949 American drama film directed by renowned horror and film noir director Jacques Tourneur, starring Victor Mature, Lizabeth Scott and Lucille Ball...
(1949) - Tokyo JoeTokyo JoeTokyo Joe is a 1949 film directed by Stuart Heisler from a story by Steve Fisher, adapted by Walter Doniger and starring Humphrey Bogart, Florence Marly and Sessue Hayakawa...
(1949) - The Marrying KindThe Marrying KindThe Marrying Kind is a film directed by George Cukor, starring Aldo Ray and Judy Holliday. Other cast members include John Alexander, Charles Bronson, Peggy Cass, Barry Curtis, Tom Farrell, Frank Ferguson, Ruth Gordon , Gordon Jones, Madge Kennedy, Nancy Kulp, Mickey Shaughnessy, and Joan...
(19521952 in filmThe year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
) - The Winning TeamThe Winning TeamThe Winning Team is 1952 film directed by Lewis Seiler. It is fictionalized biography of the life of major league pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander starring Ronald Reagan as Alexander, Doris Day as his wife, Aimee and Frank Lovejoy as Rogers Hornsby...
(1952) - Big Jim McLainBig Jim McLainBig Jim McLain is a 1952 political thriller film starring John Wayne and James Arness as HUAC investigators hunting down communists in the post-war Hawaii organized labor scene. Edward Ludwig directed....
(1952) - Island in the SkyIsland in the Sky (1953 film)Island in The Sky is a 1953 American aviation adventure/drama film written by Ernest K. Gann based on his 1944 novel of the same name, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring and co-produced by John Wayne. It was released by Warner Bros...
(19531953 in filmThe year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...
) - The Monster That Challenged The WorldThe Monster That Challenged the WorldThe Monster That Challenged the World is a science-fiction monster movie, about an army of giant mollusks that emerge from the Salton Sea, California. Directed by Arnold Laven, the film starred Tim Holt and Audrey Dalton....
(19571957 in filmThe year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...
) - Shoot-Out at Medicine BendShoot-Out at Medicine BendShoot-Out at Medicine Bend is a 1957 Western film directed by Richard L. Bare and starring Randolph Scott, James Garner and Angie Dickinson. This was the final film that Scott made with Warner Bros.-Plot synopsis:...
(1957) - Live Fast, Die YoungLive Fast, Die Young (film)Live Fast, Die Young is a 1958 film directed by Paul Henreid and written by Ib Melchior. The film stars Mary Murphy, Norma Eberhardt, Mike Connors and Sheridan Comerate...
(1958) - The Shaggy DogThe Shaggy Dog (1959 film)The Shaggy Dog is a black and white 1959 Walt Disney film about Wilby Daniels, a teenage boy who is transformed into an Old English Sheepdog by an enchanted ring of the Borgias. The film was based on the story, The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten...
(19591959 in filmThe year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....
) - McLintock!McLintock!McLintock! is a 1963 comedy Western starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The film is notable, perhaps even infamous, for its two spanking scenes, in which mother and daughter are each paddled with coal shovels: the daughter by her...
(19631963 in filmThe year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
)