Gordon Jump
Encyclopedia
Alexander Gordon Jump was an American actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 best known as the clueless radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 manager Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson in the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...

and the incompetent "Chief of Police Tinkler" in the sitcom Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

. He also played the "Maytag Repairman" in commercials for Maytag brand appliances, from 1989 until his retirement from the role in July 2003.

Early life

Born Alexander Gordon Jump, in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

, Jump graduated from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio
Westerville, Ohio
Westerville, once known as "The Dry Capital of the World", is a city in Franklin and Delaware counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 35,318 at the 2000 census.-Early history:...

, in 1955. In 1957, Jump graduated with a degree in journalism from Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He began his career working at radio
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 and television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

s in Manhattan
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...

 and Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

. In Topeka he did the weather on WIBW-TV
WIBW-TV
WIBW-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Topeka, Kansas. It broadcasts a digital signal on VHF channel 13 and its digital translator on UHF channel 44. Both operating frequencies are transmitted in Maple Hill. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios at Southwest Commerce Place...

 in 1959; in the early 1960s, he performed on the station's Saturday morning children's program as "Wib the Clown." He was a television producer and on-air personality in Dayton, Ohio, when he decided to move to Los Angeles and study acting.

Acting career

Jump first began his acting career in the 1960s with minor roles in television on such shows as Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

, Lancer
Lancer (TV series)
Lancer is a 1968-1970 Western television series on CBS, which starred Andrew Duggan, James Stacy, and Wayne Maunder as a father with two half-brother sons, an arrangement similar to the more successful Bonanza on NBC....

, Here Come the Brides
Here Come the Brides
Here Come the Brides is an American comedy Western series from Screen Gems that aired on the ABC television network from September 25, 1968 to April 3, 1970...

, and Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...

. He also guest-starred in a number of series during the 1970s including The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...

, The Incredible Hulk (in an October 1978 episode called "Ricky"), The Lost Saucer
The Lost Saucer
The Lost Saucer is an ABC network television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. It first aired September 6, 1975.-Premise:The Lost Saucer was about two time-travelling futuristic androids named Fi and Fum who land their flying saucer on present day Earth...

, Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...

, Lou Grant (TV series)
Lou Grant (TV series)
Lou Grant is an American television drama series starring Ed Asner in the titular role as a newspaper editor. Unusual in American television, this drama series was a spinoff from a sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Aired from 1977 to 1982, Lou Grant won 13 Emmy Awards, including "Outstanding Drama...

, Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...

, The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman is an American television series starring Lindsay Wagner that aired for three seasons between 1976 and 1978 as a spin off from The Six Million Dollar Man. Wagner stars as tennis pro Jaime Sommers who is nearly killed in a skydiving accident. Sommers' life is saved by Oscar Goldman ...

, and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries is a television series which aired for three seasons on ABC...

. He had a brief speaking role as a farmer in the 1976 TV Movie "Sybil." In 1978, he landed the role of Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.

After WKRP in Cincinnati folded in 1982, Jump made an appearance as the bicycle man who sexually molests Arnold and Dudley on Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...

. He later hosted the PBS series Make Yourself at Home
Make Yourself At Home
Make Yourself At Home may refer to:*The English translation of the title of the BBC television programme, Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye*The Make Yourself at Home EP by The Starting Line,...

and taught voice classes, and made frequent appearances on the hit television show, Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...

playing Joanna Kerns
Joanna Kerns
Joanna Kerns is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the family situation comedy Growing Pains from 1985-1992.-Early life:...

  father. Jump also enjoyed working in theater. In 1989, he took over the Maytag repairman role from Jesse White
Jesse White (actor)
Jesse White was an American television, film, and stage character actor. He is best remembered for portraying the Maytag repairman in television commercials, a role he played from 1967 to 1988.-Life and career:...

. In the 1990s, Jump starred in a short-lived revival of WKRP entitled The New WKRP in Cincinnati
The New WKRP in Cincinnati
The New WKRP in Cincinnati is a sequel/spin-off of the original CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. It was made for the syndication market from 1991 to 1993....

. He also appeared in the ninth and final season of Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

, where he played George Costanza
George Costanza
George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...

's boss at a playground equipment company over two episodes. Jump's last film role was in the 2004 film Changing of the Guard released after his death.

Death

Jump died in 2003 from pulmonary fibrosis
Pulmonary fibrosis
Pulmonary fibrosis is the formation or development of excess fibrous connective tissue in the lungs. It is also described as "scarring of the lung".-Symptoms:Symptoms of pulmonary fibrosis are mainly:...

, leading to respiratory failure
Respiratory failure
The term respiratory failure, in medicine, is used to describe inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, with the result that arterial oxygen and/or carbon dioxide levels cannot be maintained within their normal ranges. A drop in blood oxygenation is known as hypoxemia; a rise in arterial...

 at his home near Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

.

Selected filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson. It is the fourth of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs. It explores how the apes rebelled from mankind's ill treatment following Escape from the Planet of...

Auctioneer
1978 The Fury Mr. Nuckells
1984 Making the Grade
Making the Grade (film)
Making the Grade is an American film which was released in 1984. It was directed by Dorian Walker and written by Charles Gale and Gene Quintano. It was filmed at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.-Synopsis:...

Mr. Harriman Alternative title: The Last American Preppy
1988 Moving Simon Eberhart
1990 Honeymoon Academy
Honeymoon Academy
Honeymoon Academy is a 1990 comedy-drama film starring Robert Hays and Kim Cattrall. It was directed by Gene Quintano and was filmed in Spain.-Plot summary:...

Mr. Nelson Alternative title: For Better or For Worse
2002 The Singles Ward
The Singles Ward
The Singles Ward is a 2002 LDS cinema comedy film directed by Kurt Hale and written by Kurt Hale and John E. Moyer based on his own life as a stand up comedian and single member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

An Airline Passenger
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1965 Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (TV series)
Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...

Marcus Clements 1 episode
1967 T.H.E. Cat 1 episode
1970 Mannix
Mannix
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors...

Charlie 1 episode
1971 The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973. In addition to showcasing Doris Day, the show is remembered for its many abrupt format changes over the course of its five-year run...

Mr. Robinson 1 episode
1973 The Paul Lynde Show
The Paul Lynde Show
The Paul Lynde Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC. The series stars Paul Lynde and aired from September 13, 1972 to September 8, 1973.-Setting:...

Larry 1 episode
1974 Kojak Jonas 1 episode
1974–1975 That's My Mama
That's My Mama
That's My Mama is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 1974 until December 1975. There are 39 episodes of this series.-Synopsis:...

Officer O'Reilley 3 episodes
1975 The Streets of San Francisco
The Streets of San Francisco
The Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...

Sergeant Lacy 1 episode
1976 Alice
Alice (TV series)
Alice is an American sitcom television series that ran from August 31, 1976 to July 2, 1985 on CBS. The series was based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start her life over again, and finds a job...

Sherrif McElroy 1 episode
1977 Lou Grant
Lou Grant (TV series)
Lou Grant is an American television drama series starring Ed Asner in the titular role as a newspaper editor. Unusual in American television, this drama series was a spinoff from a sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Aired from 1977 to 1982, Lou Grant won 13 Emmy Awards, including "Outstanding Drama...

National Editor 6 episodes
1978-82 WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...

Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson, Station Owner and Manager 88 episodes (90 in Syndication)
1980 Mr. Krueger's Christmas
Mr. Krueger's Christmas
Mr. Krueger's Christmas is a 1980 made-for-television film starring Jimmy Stewart, and directed by Kieth Merrill.It was created by Brigham Young University for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and features the Mormon Tabernacle Choir....

Narrator Television movie
1985 Tall Tales & Legends
Tall Tales & Legends
Tall Tales & Legends is a series created by Shelley Duvall, following her success with her first series, Faerie Tale Theatre. It ran from 1985-1987 on Showtime and comprised nine episodes, adapted from various American-based stories of bravery....

Mr. Ripple 1 episode
1986 Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...

Ross Garrett 1 episode
1986 The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...

Guest star 1 episode
1987 Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...

Mr. Horton 1 episode
1988 Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...

Archie 1 episode
1989 Sister Kate Lucas Underwood 1 episode
1994 Baywatch
Baywatch
Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, sans the 1990-1991 season, of which it was not in production...

Max Edelman 2 episodes
1995 Empty Nest Bud 1 episode
1997 Married... with Children
Married... with Children
Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...

Mr. Tot 1 episode
1997 Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

Mr. Thomassoulo 2 episodes
1998 Mike Hammer, Private Eye
Mike Hammer, Private Eye
Mike Hammer, Private Eye is an American syndicated television program based on the adventures of the fictitious private detective Mike Hammer, created by novelist Mickey Spillane...

Augustus Hancock Sterling
The General
2 episodes

External links

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