Leo Gordon

Leo Vincent Gordon (December 2, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American character actor and screenwriter. During more than 40 years in film and television he was most frequently cast as a supporting actor playing brutish bad guys but occasionally played more sympathetic roles just as effectively.

Early life and career Gordon was born in Brooklyn in New York City Convicted of armed robbery, he served five years in San Quentin Prison, where he furthered his education by reading nearly every book in the library.

Other notable roles included that of John Dillinger in Siegel's Baby Face Nelson, opposite Mickey Rooney as the crazed protagonist. Gordon may be most noted for his recurring Irish character Big Mike McComb on the ABC/Warner Brothers Western television series Maverick, working from 1957 to 1960 alongside James Garner and Jack Kelly. Gordon's five appearances in the role include the much remembered episode "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres", "According to Hoyle" and "Plunder of Paradise" as well as "War of the Silver Kings", the first installment broadcast. Garner later recalled in his videotaped interview for the Archive of American Television that Gordon purposely punched him for real in one of their first scenes together and that Garner hit him back when filming the next scene. This is obviously visible when Gordon first hits Garner in the stomach, slamming Garner back against a closet door. Garner and Gordon reunited in the 1970s when Gordon appeared as a dimwitted bodyguard on four episodes of NBC's The Rockford Files starring Garner.

Gordon appeared in multiple roles on Robert Stack's 1959 ABC crime drama The Untouchables. Gordon also guest-starred on the ABC/WB western series The Alaskans opposite Roger Moore. He was cast as Damian in the 1961 episode "Million Dollar Suit" of the ABC/WB crime drama The Roaring 20s. He also appeared on the NBC Western series Empire, Laramie and Laredo, the syndicated Tombstone Territory, and both acted in and wrote for Adam-12.

One of Gordon's best-remembered television appearances was on CBS's The Andy Griffith Show in the episode "High Noon in Mayberry", in which he portrays an ex-convict who appears destined for revenge against Sheriff Andy Taylor of fictitious Mayberry. The screenwriters for the episode, Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, borrowed heavily from Gordon's brief criminal career and subsequent incarceration in order to supplement the role.

Perhaps Gordon's single most memorable film scene occurred in McLintock! (1963), during which John Wayne knocks him down a long mudslide after uttering the famous line "Somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't! I won't! The hell I won't." Another notable role was in the 1966 western The Night of the Grizzly opposite Clint Walker, one of the very few actors who could match Gordon's intense screen presence regarding physical size and strength. Gordon played bounty hunter Cass Dowdy, who had a soft spot for his enemy's son but would, as one character said, "...hunt anything for a price, man or animal." Somehow, Gordon managed to make his character as sympathetic as he was frightening, and in his final scene he gives his life to save the boy.

Gordon portrayed sympathetic parts when called upon to do so, including his performances in Black Patch (1957) and Tobruk (1967), which were both films that he wrote, and in Roger Corman's civil rights drama The Intruder (1962), opposite a young William Shatner.

In 1965, he was cast as the troublemaker Bender in the syndicated western series Death Valley Days in the episode "No Gun Behind His Badge", a dramatization of the Abilene, Kansas, marshal Thomas J. Smith, depicted in the segment by series host (and future U.S. president) Ronald Reagan. The episode also starred Michael Witney as Wild Bill Hickok, who succeeded Smith as marshal. In 1970 Gordon appeared as Loma Bartender on The Men From Shiloh (rebranded name for The Virginian) on the episode titled "Hannah."

Gordon also appeared as aging wrestler Milo Stavroupolis on NBC's Little House on the Prairie, starring Michael Landon.

Gordon's final role was as Wyatt Earp in a 1994 episode of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He also appeared in the film Maverick that same year with Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and James Garner.

Screenwriter and novelist

Gordon was also a prolific screenwriter and novelist. Usually credited as "Leo V. Gordon", he wrote dozens of scripts for television series and movies, sometimes writing a good role for himself. His first successful film script, The Cry Baby Killer, featured a young and unknown Jack Nicholson. He wrote several movies for the Corman brothers, Roger and Gene.

Among the more notable feature films he wrote was You Can't Win 'Em All (1970) starring Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson. He also wrote the screenplay and appeared in Tobruk (1967), which starred Rock Hudson and George Peppard and was directed by Arthur Hiller. As a television screenwriter he wrote nearly 50 scripts apiece for Bonanza, Cheyenne and Maverick, in the episodes in which he was not a guest star. In the 1970s, he appeared frequently as well on the popular police drama Adam-12, another show that he often scripted. Gordon once told an interviewer that because of his imposing size he never felt he was fully accepted as a screenwriter: "Writing is more rewarding than acting, but look at my face. Nobody believes I'm a writer. I should be 5' 8", 142 pounds, wear patches on my elbows and horn-rimmed glasses and smoke a pipe. That's a writer!"

Personal life and death In 1997 Gordon received the Golden Boot Award for his many years working in Westerns.

Gordon died, aged 78, on December 26, 2000. His ashes and those of his wife are together in a memorial display in a columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Complete filmography

1950s China Venture (1953) as Sgt. Hank Janowicz City of Bad Men (1953) as Russell (uncredited) Gun Fury (1953) as Tom "Jess" Burgess All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) as Peter How Hondo (1953) as Ed Lowe Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) as Crazy Mike Carnie The Egyptian (1954) as Minor Role (uncredited) The Yellow Mountain (1954) as Drake Sign of the Pagan (1954) as Bleda The Bamboo Prison (1954) as Pike Ten Wanted Men (1955) as Frank Scavo Seven Angry Men (1955) as Martin White Santa Fe Passage (1955) as Tuss McLawery Soldier of Fortune (1955) as Big Matt Robbers' Roost (1955) as Jeff Tennessee's Partner (1955) as The Sheriff Man with the Gun (1955) as Ed Pinchot The Conqueror (1956) as Tartar Captain The Steel Jungle (1956) as Lupo Red Sundown (1956) as Rod Zellman The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) as Chauffeur (uncredited) Great Day in the Morning (1956) as Zeff Masterson Johnny Concho (1956) as Mason 7th Cavalry (1956) as Vogel The Restless Breed (1957) as Cherokee Lure of the Swamp (1957) as Steggins, Insurance Investigator Black Patch (1957) as Hank Danner The Tall Stranger (1957) as Stark Baby Face Nelson (1957) as John Dillinger Man in the Shadow (1957) as Chet Huneker The Notorious Mr. Monks (1958) as Chip Klamp Quantrill's Raiders (1958) as Quantrill The Cry Baby Killer (1958) as Man in Crowd (uncredited) Apache Territory (1958) as Zimmerman Ride a Crooked Trail (1958) as Sam Mason Escort West (1958) as Trooper Vogel The Big Operator (1959) as Danny Sacanzi Perry Mason (1959) as Charles Duncan The Jayhawkers! (1959) as Jake Barton

1960s Noose for a Gunman (1960) as Link Roy Laramie (1960) as Raff The Nun and the Sergeant (1962) as Dockman The Intruder (1962) as Sam Griffin Tarzan Goes to India (1962) as Bryce, Head Engineer The Raven (1963) as Grimes (uncredited voice) The Haunted Palace (1963) as Edgar Weeden / Ezra Weeden McLintock! (1963) as Jones Kings of the Sun (1963) as Hunac Ceel Kitten with a Whip (1964) as Enders The Girls on the Beach (1965) as Second Waiter (uncredited) The Dictator's Guns (1965) as Morrison The Night of the Grizzly (1966) as Cass Dowdy Beau Geste (1966) as Krauss Tobruk (1967) as Sgt. Krug Devil's Angels (1967) as Sheriff Henderson The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) as Heitler Hostile Guns (1967) as Hank Pleasant Buckskin (1968) as Travis

1970s You Can't Win 'Em All (1970) as Bolek The Trackers (1971, TV Movie) as Higgins Bonnie's Kids (1973) as Charley My Name Is Nobody (1973) as Red Nashville Girl (1976) as Burt The Lucifer Complex (1978) as Norris (uncredited) Son of Hitler (1978) as Tuennes Bog (1979) as Dr. John Warren

1980s Rage! (1980, TV Movie) as Cal's Father M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (1983, TV Movie) as Officer Horvath Fire and Ice (1983) as Jarol The Rousters (1983, TV Movie) as Unhappy Gun Buyer Savage Dawn (1985) as Sheriff The All American Cowboy (1985, TV Movie) The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987) as Guard #1 Big Top Pee-wee (1988) as Joe the Blacksmith Saturday the 14th Strikes Back (1988) as The Evil One Alienator (1989) as Col. Coburn

1990s Mob Boss (1990) as Don O'Reily Maverick (1994) as Poker Player The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Hollywood Follies (1994, TV Movie) as Wyatt Earp (final film role)

Partial television credits

Cheyenne – episode "The Outlander" (1955) as MacDonald Gunsmoke – five episodes (1956–1974) Broken Arrow – episode "The Raiders" (1956) as Will Carr Sneak Preview – episode "The Merry-Go-Round" (1956) The Walter Winchell File – episode "The Witness" (1957) as Robinson Tales of Wells Fargo – three episodes (1957–1961) Maverick – five episodes (1957–1959) Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color – two episodes (1958) Official Detective – episode "Muggers" (1958) as Joseph Kirku Sea Hunt – episode "Flooded Mine" (1958) as panicky miner Bat Masterson – episode "Dude's Folly" (1958) as Joe Quince and episode "Law of the Land (1960) as Red Eric Peterson The Rifleman (1958–1963) – two episodes Perry Mason – episode "The Case of the Dangerous Dowager" (1959) as Charles Duncan Bonanza – 3 episodes (1959–1968) as Early Thorne / Forsythe / Fargo Taylor Have Gun - Will Travel as Harkness in S4E16 "The Sanctuary" (1960) The Untouchables – two episodes (1960) The Andy Griffith Show – episode "High Noon in Mayberry" (1963) as Luke Comstock Laredo – episode "Lazyfoot, Where Are You?" (1965) as Moose Daniel Boone – episode "A Rope for Mingo" (1965) as Silas Morgan Laredo – episode "The Land Slickers" (1966) as Wayne Emerson Rango – episode "The Daring Holdup of the Deadwood Stage" (1967) as Slade McCloud – episode "Horse Stealing on Fifth Avenue" (1970) as Officer Shannen O'Hara, U.S. Treasury – episode "Operation: Hijack" (1971) as Harry Wilson Alias Smith and Jones – episode "Smiler with a Gun" (1971) as Ebenezer Hec Ramsey – episode "The Mystery of Chalk Hill" (1973) as Shaneley The F.B.I. – episode "Diamond Run" (1974) as Drunk Driver Adam-12 – five episodes (1971–1975) Cannon – episode "A Touch of Venom" (1975) as Jack Danvers The Rockford Files – four episodes (1978–1979) The Dukes of Hazzard – episode "Deputy Dukes" (1979) as Rocky Marlowe Little House on the Prairie – episode "The King Is Dead" (1979) as Milo Stavroupolis Fantasy Island – two episodes (1980–1981) The Winds of War (1983 TV miniseries) as General "Train" Anderson Magnum, P.I. – episode "The People vs. Orville Wright" (1987) as Croquet Player