Tom Mix
Tom Mix (actually: Thomas Hezikiah Mix ; born January 6, 1880 in Mix Run , Pennsylvania , † October 12, 1940 in Florence , Arizona ) was an American film actor, director and producer. One of the early stars of the western genre during the silent movie era , he made millions of dollars and starred in over 300 films during his career.
life and career
Tom Mix was born the son of a lumberjack and stable master in a rural village. So he learned to ride in his childhood. In April 1898 he joined the US Army as Thomas E. Mix and took part in the Spanish-American War . He then worked in various jobs in the horse business and toured the United States as a cowboy in Wild West shows from 1906 to 1909 . In 1909 he won the national equestrian and rodeo championships , then he became a stuntman and consultant in western productions for the film company Selig Polyscope Company . In 1910 he made his film debut there and quickly developed into a much sought-after actor. In the course of his subsequent film career, he should have been involved in well over 300 film productions, of which only nine are sound films. Most of Mix's silent films are now lost .
Until 1917 Mix played many one- and two-acts for the Selig Company , often directing and also acting as a writer and producer. In 1917 Mix went to the influential Fox Film Corporation and developed with his horse "Tony the Wonderhorse" into perhaps the greatest cowboy film star of his time. At Fox he shot an average of five western films a year. Many of his films were also introduced to cinemas in German-speaking countries during the 1920s, so Mix achieved great popularity in this country too. Mix's films, especially those from the 1920s, are a mixture of drama and adventurous Wild West romance. A lot of humor was also characteristic of Mix's western films. Tom Mix was mostly staged as a glamorous, kind-hearted cowboy in his films - in contrast to the second great western star William S. Hart , who mostly played broken and rough cowboys.
With the start of talkies at the end of the 1920s, Mix switched to Universal . For his appearances in the "Sells Floto" circus between 1929 and 1931, Tom Mix received a weekly salary of US $ 20,000, a gigantic sum at the time, which underlines his popularity at the time. In the 1930s, the falling popularity of the western genre, but also health problems caused by stunt injuries, made the actor more and more troublesome. In 1935 Mix withdrew from the film business and instead went on tour tours through the United States and Europe with his own circus. When he performed with the circus in Denmark in 1939, the admirer Adolf Hitler greeted him by phone - Tom Mix is said to have answered: "I would like to visit my fans in Germany again, but first over your corpse."
Private life and death
On October 12, 1940, Tom Mix skid his car, a 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton , got off the road and landed upside down in the ditch. He is said to have been killed by a heavy metal suitcase in the car and died immediately. Tom Mix is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale , California . A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street commemorates him today. There is a Tom Mix Museum in Dewey , Oklahoma .
The 60-year-old actor left his fifth wife, Mabel Hubbell Ward, to whom he had been married since 1932, on his death. Mix had two children from previous marriages, including actress Ruth Mix (1912–1977), who appeared in some of her father's films. On February 21, 1925, Mix was admitted to the Freemasonry Association, his lodge was Utopia No. 537 .
In popular culture
While almost all of Tom Mix's films have been forgotten today, his name has been remembered mainly through numerous pop-cultural references. Here is a small selection of these reminiscences of Tom Mix:
- The popular radio show Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters , in which western stories were presented, existed in the USA from 1933 to the 1950s . Although Mix gave the show his name, he never appeared on it himself.
- From 1953 to 1954 the Swedish Serieförlaget Verlag published a comic series under the title Tom Mix in Germany. Tom Mix shared the magazine with other western heroes such as Lash La Rue or Buffalo Bill . Number 8 from 1954 is considered by collectors to be the most valuable German comic book, only one surviving copy is known.
- In the 1950s there was also a board / card game called "Tom Mix in Texas", which also included pewter figures.
- In 1951 little Conny Froboess was asked by her friend “Fritz” in the popular hit song “ Pack the swimming trunks ” whether she would like to watch a film with Tom Mix in the cinema with him. But she prefers to go to the Wannsee to swim.
- Tom Mix came to late literary honors in three science fiction novels by the American author Philip José Farmer , "Auf dem Zeitstrom" ( The Fabulous Riverboat , 1971), Heyne 1979 - ISBN 3453305671 , "Das dunkle Muster" ( The Dark design , 1977), Heyne 1980 - ISBN 3453306139 and "the Magic labyrinth" ( the Magic labyrinth , 1980), Heyne 1981 - ISBN 3453307399 from which flow world cycle in which mix with other celebrities such as Jack London and Mark Twain , had fantastic adventures.
- Actor Bruce Willis played Tom Mix in Blake Edwards ' film Sunset in Hollywood (1988).
- At the end of the film Tombstone by George Pan Cosmatos , the proven anecdote is quoted that Tom Mix was one of the pallbearers of Wyatt Earp and wept.
- In Volker Kutscher's novel The Fatherland Files, which was set in Berlin in the early 1930s . Gereon Rath's fourth case compares the appearance of a character dressed as a cowboy to Tom Mix.
Filmography (selection)
- 1910: Trimming of Paradise Gulch
- 1915: To Arizona Wooing
- 1915: The Man from Texas
- 1917: Tom and Jerry
- 1917: The Heart of Texas Ryan
- 1921: The Queen of Sheba
- 1922: The Lord of the Steppes (Just Tony)
- 1922: Higher than the clouds (Sky High)
- 1923: Bandit Revenge (Three Jumps Ahead)
- 1923: Among the Wolves of Alaska (North of Hudson Bay)
- 1925: Riders of the Purple Rage
- 1925: Dick Turpin, the Gallant Bandit (Dick Turpin)
- 1926: The Great K & A Train Robbery
- 1928: Daredevil's Reward
- 1932: The Rider of Death Valley
- 1932: Tom accounts (Destry Rides Again)
- 1932: The Texas Bad Man
- 1932: My Pal, the King
- 1935: Tom Mix, der Wunderreiter (The Miracle Rider)
- 1940: Rodeo Dough (short film)
literature
- Kurt Klotzbach: Tom Mix - King of the Cowboys. Titania, Stuttgart, 1984, 208 pages, numerous. Fig, bound
With this book, the journalist Kurt Klotzbach wrote his first comprehensive mixed biography in German. Together with his wife Berny, he was significantly involved in the 'First National Tom Mix Festival' in 1980 in DuBois, Philadelphia, USA
Web links
- Tom Mix in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Site about Tom Mix's horse "Tony the Wonder Horse" in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Photo gallery (english)
- Pictures from Tom Mix In: Virtual History
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article at Zauberspiegel ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Spiegel article on Tom Mix
- ↑ Article on the 75th anniversary of Tom Mix's death
- ↑ Tom Mix at Find A Grave
- ↑ Tom Mix on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame" project for the Los Angeles Times
- ^ Website of the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey
- ^ Ruth Mix at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Famous Freemasons Tom Mix , Homepage: Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon (Retrieved April 25, 2012)
- ↑ Roger S. Peterson, "Wyatt Earp". American History (Weider History Group) 29 (1994); ISSN 1076-8866.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mix, Tom |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mix, Thomas Hezikiah (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film actor, director and producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1880 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mix Run , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 12, 1940 |
| Place of death | Florence , Arizona |