Sorry John Wayne, This Actor Is the “King of Cowboys”

No, it’s not Gene Autry, Ronald Reagan, or Clint Eastwood either!

Thomas Edwin Mix was an American Western Actor who appeared in 291 films, all of which were silent except for nine. He has more Western acting credits than any other actor, but he is relatively unknown today because most of his films were silent. Tragically, most of his films were destroyed in the Fox Vault Fire of 1937. He has been dubbed “The King of Cowboys,” and his approach to the role influenced Western actors such as future President Ronald Reagan and John Wayne. He was friends with legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and was even a pallbearer at his funeral. The film Sunset was very loosely based on their friendship, with Bruce Willis portraying the legendary actor, albeit in a more slapstick manner than Mix is traditionally known for.

Tom Mix Is the Real ‘King of Cowboys”

Tom Mix was a multi-talented American Western actor, director, and writer. His career spanned from 1910 to 1935. The Oklahoma Historical Society, in their exhibit honoring the man, the myth, and the legend, denotes that Thomas Hezikiah Mix was born on January 6, 1880, in the appropriately named Mix Run, Pennsylvania. He had a modest upbringing under his parents, Edwin Elias Mix and Elizabeth Heistand. He spent most of his time in DuBois, where his father worked as a stable master for a wealthy lumber merchant. Mix would spend his days learning to ride horses there, an essential feature of his acting as he did all his own trick riding. As he got older, though, he would go to work on John Dubois’s farm, where he learned to cultivate the cowboy lifestyle that he would make famous. He enlisted in the army in 1898 but never saw action in the Spanish-American War, eventually going AWOL, although he was never court marshaled. In 1905, he rubbed shoulders with famous lawman Seth Bullock of Deadwood during President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. He then moved on to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he worked as a bartender, among other odd jobs, before becoming an actor.

Tom Mix began his career with the Selig Polyscope Company, working as a supporting actor. His first film appearance came on October 21, 1909, with the release of The Cowboy Millionaire. His big break, however, came in 1910 when he appeared as himself in the documentary Ranch Life in the Great Southwest, where his skills as a rancher, rider, and roper were put on full display, making him an overnight Hollywood sensation. In the book King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies, biographer Robert Birchard reveals that Tom Mix would appear in 270 Western films, firmly cementing him as one of Hollywood’s most prolific actors and the first real Hollywood cowboy star. For years, his on-screen prowess and flair for stage presence became the standard for on-screen cowboys. He did all his stunts and horseback riding, injuring himself frequently. He dressed in flashy cowboy regalia, where he would clash with sharply defined villains in black hats in a romanticized Western world where clean-cut cowboys permanently save the day.

Related
Sergio Corbucci’s character is the most prolific movie cowboy ever.

Millions of children grew up watching Tom Mix, and he was so popular that, according to Alan Barbour in the book The Thrill of It All, even his horse Tony became a celebrity in his own right, receiving his own fan mail. On October 12, 1940, Mix tragically died in a car crash in Tucson, Arizona. The beloved cowboy’s car overturned, taking a detour. He was 60 years old. In the spot where the infamous accident occurred stands a memorial on State Route 79 at what became known as Tom Mix Wash. The memorial bears the inscription “In memory of Tom Mix, whose spirit left his body on this spot and whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old West in the minds of living men.”

How Did Tom Mix Influence John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Ronald Reagan?

The legacy of Tom Mix can be seen in the on-screen personas of famous Western cowboys like Gene Autry, who sought to imitate Mix. In the groundbreaking, bizarre ’30s sci-fi Western film The Phantom Empire, an elaborately dressed Autry wrangles cattle, trick rides, shoots, and saves the day, honoring his contract with the radio station. A clean-cut cowboy saves the day, fighting the noble fight against city-slicker corruption and preventing a war in a futuristic underworld city. The whole film is reminiscent of something straight out of Tom Mix’s serial Western, The Miracle Rider, where a clean-cut cowboy played by Mix stops corrupt local officials from taking over an Indian Reservation. Full of the same trick riding, shooting, and good guy swagger, Mix cuts a stunning on-screen figure, transitioning rather seamlessly from the world of silent film to talking pictures.

That same swagger can be seen in any of John Wayne’s performances, where the good guys are always can-do, clean-shaven cowboys imbued with the moral right of American manifest destiny. Wayne was adamantly conservative in his views and a big believer in the rugged individualism of the mythical cowboy of the American West. His swagger, cool-headedness, and self-assured demeanor are also reminiscent of Mix, who approaches the corrupt Zaroff (Charles Middleton), the rancher and oil company owner and antagonist of The Miracle Rider. Mix shoves his way into his office, leans over the nervous tycoon, and informs him that he’s on to his plans and won’t fly. For Tom Mix and John Wayne, the good guys always win and are always on the right side of history. It’s no wonder that this is the case, though, because Wayne owes his career, in part, to Tom Mix. In John Wayne: The Life and Legend, Scott Eyman reveals that director John Ford hired Wayne as a prop boy and extra as a favor to Tom Mix.

How Were Most of Tom Mix’s Films Destroyed?

It is no secret that Tom Mix left an incredible legacy, not only due to the impressive number of film credits he accrued and the influence of the performances of many other famous Western actors but also the entire culture of the American West. His likeness has been used in many Western-themed comic books. Dell Comics issued an 11-issue series featuring the actor between 1937 and 1938. Fawcett Comics published 61 issues of Tom Mix Western from 1948 to 1953. He is so celebrated that two museums were erected in his honor: one in Dewey, Oklahoma, and from 1986-2002, another in Mix Run, Pennsylvania. He was a silver screen legend whose legacy is carried on through the very genre he loved so dear. His influence has permeated the very fabric of the Western genre and endured even though the vast majority of his films can never be seen again!

In 1937, in Little Ferry, New Jersey, a massive fire broke out in the Fox Film Corporation vault. The vault contained copies of different films; all imprinted onto highly flammable nitrate film. As the films decayed in the vault, they released gasses that invariably caught fire and spontaneously combusted due to inadequate ventilation. Almost all of Fox’s silent films made before 1932 were destroyed, and included in the bunch were practically all of Tom Mix’s silent films. The loss was staggering, an entire lifetime’s worth of work destroyed instantly. The fire would prompt the change from nitrate film to celluloid in the interests of film preservation and, further still, the development of digital recording, ensuring that no film will burn up spontaneously ever again. The fact that Tom Mix, more or less, invented what came to be the stereotypical movie cowboy, and this legacy endures despite his films being readily available, is a testament to just how profound an impact the actor had on the genre. Tom Mix doesn’t need his films to survive because he has transcended them. Tom Mix’s authenticity as an actor is so vital that one cannot imagine a classic cowboy without somehow picturing him, even if they don’t know it yet.

The Miracle Rider is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.