Tim McCoy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy (born April 10, 1891 in Saginaw , Michigan , † January 29, 1978 in Fort Huachuca , Arizona ) was an American western actor, Indian expert and military officer with the rank of colonel .

life and career

Tim McCoy was born the son of a police chief of Irish descent. The dramatic experience of his youth was visiting a Wild West Show: The 18-year-old McCoy had visited a respected college and there studied Latin, but after visiting the West West Show broke it his school career and started on a horse ranch in Wyoming to work. There he also learned to ride and took part in many rodeo shows. He also met various Indians in the area. McCoy was fascinated by the culture of the Indians and acquired a great deal of knowledge about the rites and languages ​​of the Indians. In contrast to many whites of his time, he treated them with respect and eventually won their friendship. He himself developed a great reputation as an Indian expert, for example for the Plains Indian Sign Language .

When the USA entered the First World War , McCoy signed up for the United States Army and fought in Europe. He made it to the rank of Brigadier General. In World War II McCoy should work again for the United States Army and be promoted to Colonel .

Tim McCoy had now built his own ranch. In the early 1920s he was asked by the film producer Jesse L. Lasky if he could engage Indians as extras for the silent film western The Caravan . McCoy did this and in the following years placed Native American actors for numerous Hollywood westerns. He opened his own Indian show with some Indians, with which he toured all over America and, because of its great success, also performed in Europe. In the mid-1920s, McCoy was hired by MGM film producer Irving Thalberg to direct a number of adventure and western films. The peculiarity of McCoy's western films at MGM was that he insisted on authentic staging of Indian culture and sympathetic portrayal of the Indians - this was in contrast to many Hollywood westerns of the time, which often made use of clichés or prejudices about Indians. In two of these western films Joan Crawford appeared as his film partner.

From 1929 McCoy worked for Universal Pictures , later for Columbia Pictures , and made a long series of very successful B-Westerns . At Universal he shot a very successful film series about 1930 under the title The Indians Are Coming . In 1932 McCoy played the lead role in the western The Law in Your Own Hands , in which the later famous actors John Wayne and Walter Brennan acted as his co-stars. He worked regularly in Hollywood until 1936, then toured the United States with the famous Ringling Brothers Circus and later with his own Wild West show. McCoy kept returning to the film business, working on a number of smaller westerns for Monogram Pictures in the early 1940s . After serving in World War II, McCoy, now a wealthy man, slowly withdrew. The Colonel ended his military career and sold his ranch in Wyoming. He also only appeared sporadically in films. In 1956, he made a cameo in the award-winning adventure film Around the World in 80 Days alongside David Niven , in which McCoy aptly played an American Colonel. In the 1950s he was still active as the presenter of the television show The Tim McCoy Show . The show received an Emmy Award for Best Children's Show in 1953 .

For his services to the film, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers. In 1977 he published his autobiography Tim McCoy Remembers the West: An Autobiography by Tim McCoy . In his first marriage he was married to Agnes Miller, the daughter of actor Henry Miller , until the divorce in 1931 . From 1946 until her death he was married to the Danish journalist Inga Arvad (1913–1973). They had two sons. Tim McCoy died in 1978 at the Fort Huachuca military base at the age of 86.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1925: The Thundering Herd
  • 1926: War Point
  • 1927: Winners of the Wilderness
  • 1928: The Law of the Range
  • 1930: The Indians Are Coming
  • 1931: The Fighting Marshal
  • 1932: The law in your own hands (Two-Fisted Law)
  • 1932: Texas Cyclone
  • 1932: The Western Code
  • 1932: End of the Trail
  • 1934: The Westerner
  • 1935: Bulldog Courage
  • 1935: Square Shooter
  • 1936: Ghost Patrol
  • 1936: Aces and Eights
  • 1936: Lightin 'Bill Carson
  • 1938: On the hot track (Six-Gun Trail)
  • 1938: Lightning Carson Rides Again
  • 1939: Straight Shooter
  • 1939: Code of the Cactus
  • 1941: Arizona Bound
  • 1941: The Gunman from Bodie
  • 1941: Forbidden Trails
  • 1942: Below the Border
  • 1942: Ghost Town Law
  • 1956: In 80 days around the world (Around the World in Eighty Days)
  • 1957: Hell of a Thousand Tortures (Run of the Arrow)
  • 1965: The fastest Colt from River Falls (Requiem for a Gunfighter)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ed Farlow, Tim McCoy and Their Native Friends on Stage and Screen
  2. ^ Ed Farlow, Tim McCoy and Their Native Friends on Stage and Screen
  3. ↑ Tim McCoy at B-Western
  4. ^ "Tim McCoy Show" at Westernclippings
  5. ↑ Article about Inga Arvad in the Tagesspiegel
personal data
SURNAME McCoy, Tim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McCoy, Timothy John Fitzgerald (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actor and colonel
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Saginaw , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1978
Place of death Fort Huachuca , Arizona