Tim McCoy

Light-haired and blue-eyed American actor Tim McCoy (1891-1978) was one of the great stars of the early Western. He was also a decorated military officer and expert on American Indian life and customs. As a cowboy star, he was so popular with kids that he appeared on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 397a. Photo: Universal.


Vintage postcard.


British postcard by Rotogravure. Photo: Columbia Pictures.

Providing Hollywood with American Indian extras

Timothy John Fitzgerald 'Tim' McCoy was born in 1891 as the son of an Irish Union Civil War soldier who later became police chief in Saginaw. Tim attended St. Ignatius College in Chicago (now Loyola) and, after seeing a Wild West show there, left school and found work on a ranch in Wyoming.

He became an expert horseman and roper and developed a knowledge of the ways and languages of the American Indian tribes in the area. McCoy was later named 'High Eagle' by the Arapaho tribe of the Wind River reservation. He competed in numerous rodeos, then enlisted in the United States Army when America entered World War I.

During the war, McCoy became a decorated soldier in the United States Army and later again in World War II in Europe, rising to the rank of colonel with the Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces. He also served the state of Wyoming as its adjutant general between the wars with the brevet rank of brigadier general. At 28, he was one of the youngest brigadier generals in the history of the US Army.

In 1922, McCoy was asked by the head of Famous Players-Lasky, Jesse L. Lasky, to provide American Indian extras for the Western extravaganza, The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1923), starring J. Warren Kerrigan. He brought hundreds of his Indians to the Utah location and served as technical advisor on the film. After the filming was completed, McCoy was asked to bring a much smaller group of Indians to Hollywood for a stage presentation preceding each showing of the film. McCoy's stage show was very popular, running eight months in Hollywood and several more months in London and Paris.

McCoy returned to his Wyoming ranch, but Irving Thalberg of MGM soon signed him to a contract to star in a series of outdoor adventures, and McCoy rose to stardom. His first MGM feature was War Paint (W.S. Van Dyke, 1926), featuring epic scenes of the Wind River Indians on horseback, staged by McCoy and director Woody Van Dyke. War Paint set the tone for future McCoy westerns, in that Indians were always portrayed sympathetically, and never as bloodthirsty savages. One notable McCoy feature for MGM was The Law of the Range (William Nigh, 1928), in which he starred with Joan Crawford.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci-Editore, Milano, no. 305. Pauline Starke and Tim McCoy in War Paint (W.S. Van Dyke, 1926). Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci-Editore, Milano, no. 307. Pauline Starke and Tim McCoy in War Paint (W.S. Van Dyke, 1926). Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Authentic history lessons for kids on the Old West

The coming of talking pictures and the temporary inability to record sound outdoors resulted in MGM terminating its Tim McCoy series and McCoy returning once more to his ranch. In 1929, he was summoned back to Hollywood personally by Carl Laemmle of Universal Pictures, who insisted that McCoy would star in the first talking Western serial, The Indians Are Coming. The serial was very successful, and McCoy worked steadily in movies until 1936, when he left Hollywood.

His 1938 Wild West Show cost over $300,000 to mount and closed in bankruptcy in just 28 days. He returned to films in 1940, in a series teaming him with Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton. The eight films, released by Monogram Pictures, were very popular and might have continued, but McCoy declined to renew his contract, opting to pursue other interests.

In 1942, McCoy ran for the Republican nomination for the open US Senate Seat from Wyoming. He lost in the primary and, within 48 hours, volunteered for active duty with the U.S. Army. McCoy spent the war in the U.S. Army and performed liaison work with the Army Air Forces in Europe. He retired from the army and, according to lore, never lived in Wyoming again. His Eagle's Nest ranch was sold.

He retired from films after the war, except for a few cameo appearances much later. McCoy hosted a KTLA television show in Los Angeles in 1952, called The Tim McCoy Show, for children on weekday afternoons and Saturdays, in which he provided authentic history lessons on the Old West and showed his old Westerns. He spent his later years as a retired rancher.

McCoy was married to Agnes Miller, the daughter of stage actor and producer Henry Miller and actress Bijou Heron. Their marriage resulted in three children: son Gerald, daughter Margarita, and son D'Arcy. They were divorced in 1931. His second marriage was to Danish journalist Inga Arvad in 1946. They had two sons, Ronnie and Terry. McCoy was married to Arvad until her death from cancer in 1973. McCoy died in 1978, at the Raymond W. Bliss Army Medical Centre of Ft Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Tim McCoy's final appearance was in Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's television history of silent films, Hollywood (1980).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, 4571/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Spanish postcard by Ediciones Adolfo Zerkowitz, Barcelona, no. C42. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5356/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures. Tim McCoy and Ruth Taylor.

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.