Tim McCoy

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Tim McCoy

Born

Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy
April 10, 1891
Saginaw, Michigan

Died

January 29, 1978 (aged 86)
Ft. Huachuca, Sierra Vista, Arizona

Other name(s)

Col. T.J. McCoy
Col. Tim McCoy
Colonel Tim McCoy

Occupation

Actor
Television host

Years active

1925 - 1965

Spouse(s)

Agnes Miller (??? - 1931 three children)
Inga Arvad (1945 - 1973 two children)

Awards won
Other Awards
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 1973 Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum 1974 Inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame

Timothy John Fitzgerald "Tim" McCoy (born April 10, 1891 - died January 29, 1978) was an American actor.

1 Early years
2 Military career
3 Acting career
4 Personal life
5 Filmography
6 Further reading
7 DVD
8 Notes
9 External links

[edit] Early years

Born the son of an Irish soldier who later became police chief in Saginaw, he became a major film star most noted for his roles in Western films. He was so popular with youngsters as a cowboy star that he appeared on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes.

He attended St. Ignatius College in Chicago and after seeing a wild west show there, left school and found work on a Wyoming ranch. He became an expert horseman and roper and developed a knowledge of the ways and languages of the Native American tribes in the area. He competed in numerous rodeos, then enlisted in the United States Army when America entered the first World War.

[edit] Military career

McCoy was also a decorated soldier in the United States Army during World War I and again in World War II in Europe, rising to the rank of Colonel with the Army Air Corps. He also served the state of Wyoming as its Adjutant General between the wars with the brevert rank of Brigadier General. He was 28, and was reported to be the youngest Brigadier General in the history of the US Army. McCoy resigned from the Army, he returned to ranching and concurrently served as territorial Native American agent.

[edit] Acting career

[edit] Early career

In 1922, he was asked by the head of Famous Players-Lasky, Jesse L. Lasky, to provide Native American extras for the Western extravaganza, The Covered Wagon (1923). He brought hundreds of Native Americans to Hollywood and served as technical advisor on the film. After touring the country and Europe with the Native Americans as publicity, McCoy returned to Hollywood and used his connections to obtain further work in the movies, both as a technical advisor and as an actor. MGM quickly signed him to a contract to star in a series of westerns and McCoy rose to stardom, making numerous westerns and an occasional non-westerns.

In 1935, he left Hollywood, first to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and then with his own wild west show. He returned to films in 1940, in a series teaming him with Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton, but World War II and Jones's death in 1942 ended the series.

[edit] Interupted by WWII

McCoy returned to the Army for the war and served with the Army Air Corps in Europe, winning several decorations. He retiredfrom the army and from films after the war, but emerged in the late 1940s for a few more films and some television work.

[edit] Television host

McCoy hosted a television show in Los Angeles in the 1952, called "The Tim McCoy Show", for children on weekday afternoons and Saturdays in which he provided authentic history lessons on the Old West.showing old western movies. His co-host was the actor Iron eyes Cody who, while of Italian linage played an American Indian both on and off screen. Colonel McCoy was also the leading expert in the country on Native American sign language.

He won a local Emmy but didn't attend to receive the award. He was competing against "Webster Webfoot" in the "Best Children's Show" category and refused to show up saying, "I'll be damned if I'm going to sit there and get beaten by a talking duck!"

[edit] Legacy

For his contribution to the film industry, McCoy was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1973, McCoy was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. McCoy was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1974.

[edit] Personal life

He was married to Agnes Miller, the daughter of Henry Miller the famous British stage actor and producer. Their marriage resulted in three children: Gerald, a girl Margarita and a son D'Arcy. They were divorced in 1931 and Mrs McCoy received a portion of the McCoy ranch holdings in Hot Springs County, Wyoming. McCoy kept that portion known as the 'Eagles Nest'.^{[citation needed]}

His second marriage was to Inga Arvad in 1945, they had two sons - Ronald and Terence. McCoy was married to Arvad until her death from cancer in 1973. Arvad was a controversial Danish journalist investigated in the early 1940s due to rumors that she was a Nazi spy, rumors that spawned from photographs of Arvad as Adolf Hitler's companion at the 1936 Olympics and that she had twice intereviewed him. Arvad had also had several previous marriages and an affair with John F. Kennedy. J. Edgar Hoover surreptitiously audiotaped her bedroom trysts with Kennedy as a result of the FBI's investigation and journalist Seymour Hersh reported in his book The Dark Side of Camelot that Kennedy tried to retrieve those tapes throughout his presidency.

In 1973, Tim McCoy was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

McCoy died in 1978 at the Post Hospital on Ft. Huachuca, Sierra Vista, Arizona and was later cremated. Originally, his ashes were returned to his Nogales home. Nine years later, his remains, and those of wife Inga, who had died in 1973, were returned to his birthplace at Saginaw, Michigan for burial there in the Mount Olivet Cemetery next to his family's plot.

[edit] Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1925	The Thundering Herd	Burn Hudnall
1926	War Paint	Lt. Tim Marshall
1927	Winners of the Wilderness	Col. O'Hara
	California	Capt. Archibald Gillespie
	The Frontiersman	John Dale
	Foreign Devils	Capt. Robert Kelly
	Spoilers of the West	Lt. Lang
1928	The Law of the Range	Jim Lockhart
	Wyoming	Lt. Jack Colton
	Riders of the Dark	Lt. Crane
	The Adventurer	Jim McClellan
	Beyond the Sierras	The Masked Stranger
	The Bushranger	Edward
1929	Morgan's Last Raid	Capt. Daniel Clairbourne
	The Overland Telegraph	Capt. Allen
	Sioux Blood	Flood
	The Desert Rider	Jed Tyler
1930	The Indians Are Coming	Jack Manning
1931	Heroes of the Flames	Bob Darrow
	The One Way Trail	Tim Allen
	Shotgun Pass	Tim Walker
	The Fighting Marshal	Tim Benton
1932	The Fighting Fool	Sheriff Tim Collins
	Texas Cyclone	'Texas' Grant (Jim Rawlings)
	The Riding Tornado	Tim Torrant
	Two-Fisted Law	Tim Clark
	Daring Danger	Tim Madigan
	Cornered	Sheriff Tim Laramie
	Fighting for Justice	Tim Keene
	The Western Code	Tim Barrett
	End of the Trail	Captain Tim Travers
1933	Man of Action	Tim Barlow
	Silent Men	Tim Richards
	The Whirlwind	Tim Reynolds
	Rusty Rides Alone	Tim 'Rusty' Burke
	Police Car 17	Tim Conlon
	Hold the Press	Tim Collins
	Straightaway	Tim Dawson
1934	Speed Wings
	Voice in the Night	Tim Dale
	Hell Bent for Love	Police Captain Tim Daley
	A Man's Game	Tim
	Beyond the Law	Tim Weston
	Prescott Kid	Tim Hamlin
	The Westerner	Tim Addison
1935	Square Shooter	Tim Baxter
	Law Beyond the Range	Tim McDonald
	The Revenge Rider	Tim O'Neil
	Fighting Shadows	Constable Tim O'Hara
	Justice of the Range	Tim Condon
	The Outlaw Deputy	Tim Mallory
	Riding Wild	Tim Malloy/Tex Ravelle
	Man from Guntown	Tim Hanlon
	Bulldog Courage	Slim Braddock/Tim Braddock
1936	Roarin' Guns	Tim Corwin
	Border Caballero	Tim Ross
	Lightnin' Bill Carson	U. S. Marshal 'Lightnin' Bill Carson
	Aces and Eights	'Gentleman' Tim Madigan
	The Lion's Den	Tim Barton
	Ghost Patrol	Tim Caverly
	The Traitor	Sergeant Tim Vallance, Texas Rangers
1938	West of Rainbow's End	Tim Hart
	Code of the Rangers	Tim Strong
	Two Gun Justice	Tim
	Phantom Ranger	Tim Hayes
	Lightning Carson Rides Again	'Lightning Bill' Carson, posing as Jose	as Colonel Tim McCoy
	Six-Gun Trail	Captain William 'Lightning Bill' Carson
1939	Code of the Cactus	'Lightning' Bill Carson posing as Miguel
	Texas Wildcats	'Lightning' Bill Carson
	Outlaws' Paradise	Captain William 'Lightning Bill' Carson / Trigger Mallory
	Straight Shooter	'Lightning' Bill Carson / Sam Brown
	The Fighting Renegade	Lightning Bill Carson aka El Puma
	Trigger Fingers	'Lightning' Bill Carson
1940	Texas Renegades	Silent Tim Smith
	Frontier Crusader	'Trigger' Tim Rand
	Gun Code	Marshal Tim Hammond, alias Tim Hays
	Arizona Gang Busters	'Trigger' Tim Rand
	Riders of Black Mountain	Marshal Tim Donovan
1941	Outlaws of the Rio Grande	Marshal Tim Barton
	The Texas Marshal	Marshal 'Trigger Tim' Rand
	Arizona Bound	Marshal Tim McCall, posing as 'Parson" McCall
	The Gunman from Bodie	Marshal McCall
	Forbidden Trails	Marshal Tim McCall, posing as Ace Porter
1942	Below the Border	Marshal Tim McCall
	Ghost Town Law	Marshal Tim McCall
	Down Texas Way	U. S. Marshal Tim McCall
	Riders of the West	Marshal Tim McCall
	West of the Law	Marshal Tim McCall
1952	"The Tim McCoy Show"	Himself
1956	Around the World in Eighty Days	Colonel, U.S. Cavalry	as Col. Tim McCoy
1957	Run of the Arrow	Gen. Allen	as Colonel Tim McCoy
1965	Requiem for a Gunfighter	Judge Irving Short