Tim McCoy Movies
An authentic cowboy from the age of 15, Timothy McCoy moved to a large Wyoming ranch next to a Sioux Indian reservation after some college studies; he became an authority on Indian languages, customs, and folk history, and mastered Indian sign language. He served in World War I, and was then appointed Indian Agent for his territory. In 1922, he was employed as a technical advisor and co-ordinator of Indian extras for the film The Covered Wagon (1923); McCoy may also have done some trick riding for the film. He later he resigned his government post, having been offered a key supporting role in the western The Thundering Herd (1925). MGM signed him to a film contract in 1925; he was to star in westerns and action movies based on historical anecdotes of the American frontier. By the early '30s he was among the most popular western stars; he always appeared dresed in black, with an oversized white Stetson hat and a pearl-handled gun. McCoy interrupted his screen career in 1935 to travel with the Ringling Brothers circus. In 1938 he started his own Wild West show, but it was unsuccessful. He returned to the screen in 1940, and for two years he co-starred in the low-budget Rough Rider western series; the series ended when Buck Jones, another of its stars, died in a fire. He served in World War II (in which he was awarded the Bronze Star), then retired to his ranch; from 1949, however, he worked on TV and in occasional film cameo roles. He won an Emmy for his TV program The Tim McCoy Show. Until 1976 McCoy continued working 300 days a year as the headliner of Tommy Scott's Country Music Circus. In 1974 he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame. He authored an autobiography (assisted by his son Ronald), Tim McCoy Remembers the West (1977). ~ All Movie Guide- 1932
A standard Tim McCoy Western from Columbia Pictures, Fighting for Justice featured the stalwart McCoy as a cowboy whose late father was cheated out of his ranch by an unscrupulous tax attorney, Trout (Hooper Atchley). Falsifying the Bar A Ranch tax records, Trout, who is in league with Bull Barnard (Harry Cording), whose Drury River Gang has been terrorizing the area, attempts to break up the friendship between Tim and the ranch owner's daughter, Amy Tracey (Joyce Compton). The ploy fails miserably and the villains are brought to justice. Better known for playing a series of ditzy Southern belles, blond Joyce Compton made a very conventional prairie heroine this time around. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1931
In his first Western for Columbia, Tim McCoy played one of his favorite characters, the reformed professional gambler. Returning home to visit with brother Terry (Carroll Nye), Tim Allen (McCoy) finds Terry mortally wounded by a man he identifies as the supposedly honest gambler George Beck (Charles "Slim" Whitaker). At the Lone Star Saloon, owner Coldeye Carnell (Al Ferguson) offers him a dealer position, which he declines. He does, however, accept a job from George Beck, his brother's presumed killer, whose daughter, Helen (Doris Hill), he earlier rescued from a gang of potential muggers. As it turns out, Terry's killer is not Beck, but Coldeye who had assumed his rival's identity in order to ruin him. Beck forgives Tim for his suspicions and the reformed gambler in turn asks for Helen's hand in marriage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Doris Hill, (more)
- 1930
This western serial chronicles the adventures of a young girl whose uncle has discovered gold out West. Accompanied by her father and a friend of her uncle, she journeys to her uncle's gold mine, encountering bandits, Indians on the warpath and other adventures. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1929
Colonel Tim McCoy, M-G-M's only series Western star, played a Pony Express rider in this well-produced but otherwise average silent Western. In the course of his duties, McCoy gets acquainted with a beautiful Spanish landowner (Raquel Torres), whose property is besieged by a gang of land grabbers headed by the always nefarious Harry Woods. The studio released McCoy from his contract at the advent of sound and despite the solid box-office results of the McCoy series never again involved itself with the B-Western genre. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raquel Torres, Bert Roach, (more)
- 1929
Filmed on magnificent locations at Glacier National Park, this MGM western starring Tim McCoy came at the very end of the silent era when the medium had reached its zenith. McCoy became MGM's only series western star, and although his films were regularly dismissed as potboilers, they benefited from the usual MGM showmanship. McCoy plays an army captain who heads off an impending Indian attack by using the newfangled telegraph. Leading lady Dorothy Janis had little to do as the daughter of McCoy's commanding officer. The brunette Janis earned a brief vogue in the late 1920s starring opposite Ramon Novarro in The Pagan (1929) and Ben Lyon in Lummox (1930). Appearing among the Native American extras in this film was one Chief White Calf, the man who had modelled for the 5-cent coin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Dorothy Janis, (more)
- 1929
Separated during an Indian raid, childhood pals Tim McCoy and Robert Frazer grow up on each side of the Indian Wars in this fine silent Western produced by M-G-M. McCoy becomes an Indian Scout working for the cavalry, while Frazer stays with the tribe and takes the name Lone Eagle. The two meet when the father of McCoy's girlfriend is taken prisoner by the Indians. At first at logger heads, the boyhood friends finally put down their weapons and Lone Eagle rejoins the white man's world. McCoy's leading lady in this film, Australian-born Marian Douglas, had previously worked under her real name, Ena Gregory. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Marian Douglas, (more)
- 1929
Even as his parent studio MGM was gearing up for talkies, popular western star Tim McCoy ground out four silent vehicles during 1929. The second of the four was Morgan's Last Raid, in which McCoy's romantic vis-a-vis was busy MGM contractee Dorothy Sebastian. Conscripted into the Union army during the Civil War, Tennessee-born Capt. Clairbourne (Tim McCoy) is branded a coward when he refuses to fight opposite his friends and neighbors. This puts Clairbourne on the outs with his Yankee sweetheart Judith Rogers (Sebastian). But when Clairbourne joins a Confederate guerilla group called Morgan's Raiders and saves Judith's life, she sings a different tune. Allan Garcia, best remembered as the snooty butler in Chaplin's City Lights, plays Morgan, while another City Lights supporting player, Hank Mann, provides comedy relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Sebastian, Wheeler Oakman, (more)
- 1928
Filmed back-to-back with Spoilers of the West (1928) at Lander, WY, this MGM production was the eighth in a series of 14 superior Tim McCoy Westerns produced between 1926 and 1929. McCoy played Jack Colton, who as a boy grows up alongside Big Cloud, the son of Chief Chapulti (Goes in the Lodge). As the boys reach maturity, their roads separate and they become enemies. Violating a treaty, Big Cloud (Charles Bell) and his warriors raid a wagon train led by Colton, now a lieutenant in the cavalry. The latter has his hands full with Samantha Farrell (Dorothy Sebastian), a headstrong woman who is traveling west to stake her claim and has no patience with "trivialities" such as Indian raids. Colton manages to both tame the girl and repel the attack. In the end, the renegade Indians are defeated when Chief Chapulti, to prevent a massacre, shoots his own son. The production supervisor on both Wyoming and Spoilers of the West was studio chief Louis B. Mayer's ambitious future son-in-law, David O. Selznick. It was Selznick's idea to produce the two films simultaneously, thus saving the company around 30,000 dollars. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1928
The ancient tale of brothers, separated at birth, who grow up on opposite sides of the law, is given yet another working-over in this lavish MGM western starring Tim McCoy. A former Indian language translator, McCoy was the studio's first and only attempt at creating a series western star. Sound interrupted what seemed to have been a lucrative series, but Metro nevertheless stayed away from series westerns for good, the only major Hollywood studio to do so. Rex Lease, a personable actor being groomed for a stardom that never really materialized, played McCoy's bad-seed younger brother, and the two meet without knowing each others identity. Having learned the truth (they possess identical tattoos!), Lease redeems himself by sacrificing his own life for the sake of brother McCoy's. If not exactly The Law of the Range, the noble gesture was certainly the law of Hollywood, where crime must always be punished. A young Joan Crawford, who was being punished herself by the studio for being too opportunistic both on and off the screen, earned a few moments in the film as McCoy's love interest. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1928
The team behind MGM's Tim McCoy unit went "down under" for their inspiration for this silent "Western" about a British nobleman who kills a man in a duel and is banished for life to a penal colony in faraway Australia. McCoy breaks out of prison to become a sort of Robin Hood of the Bush, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. That is, until his father Russell Simpson, the district's new High Commissioner, gets in trouble with a gang of real bandits who have kidnapped McCoy's foster sister Marian Douglas. Filmed in and around New Hall, California, this "Eastern" enjoyed the usual high standard of the MGM McCoy oaters. Formerly known as En Gregory, leading lady Marian Douglas actually did hail from Australia. Future Universal director Arthur Lubin plays McCoy's weakling brother. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marian Douglas, Russell Simpson, (more)
- 1928
MGM's only series western hero, Tim McCoy, played a Texas Ranger lieutenant in this well-made but less than inspiring silent oater. The son (Rex Lease) and daughter (Dorothy Dwan) of a slain newspaper editor team up with Lieutenant Crane in order to catch their father's killer. When Molly accidentally shoots one of the suspects, Crane takes the girl into protective custody, falling in love with her along the way. The bandits attack the jail, but they are defeated by Crane and the arrival of the cavalry. A former technical advisor on Indian lore, McCoy went on to star in scores of low-budget westerns in the '30s and '40s. But not for MGM. Alone among Hollywood studios, the Culver City film factory never again attempted to produce series westerns, the bread-and-butter of most of its competitors. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Dorothy Dwan, (more)
- 1928
MGM's only ever series Western hero, Tim McCoy, starred in this handsomely mounted production, which drew heavily on the Zorro legend. McCoy played the Masked Stranger, a stalwart U.S. Ranger going undercover to flush out a greedy Yankee (Roy D'Arcy) in Olde California. As always, McCoy was surrounded by a first-class supporting cast which this time included mustachioed D'Arcy, fondly remembered for his overripe performance as Gilbert's lecherous rival (and Erich Von Stroheim look-alike) in Von Stroheim's The Merry Widow (1925). Also featured were bucktoothed comedienne Polly Moran and the always menacing Richard R. Neill. Although the McCoy series was profitable, it was discontinued after the changeover to sound. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Roy D'Arcy, (more)
- 1928
This romantic adventure is set in South America and tells the story of a Yankee mining engineer who falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a president whose administration has just been overthrown. His devoted daughter attempts to help her father return to power and the engineer becomes deeply involved in the revolution and risks his life to help her. Eventually they succeed and the grateful girl finally returns the love of the engineer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Charles Delaney, (more)
- 1927
Taking time out from his fine series of historical westerns, Colonel Tim McCoy starred in this action melodrama set in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He plays Captain Robert Kelly, an attaché at the American Embassy in Peking, who falls for a pretty Englishwoman, Lady Patricia Rudledge (Claire Windsor). Foolishly visiting a local temple in the midst of the rebellion, the latter is attacked by an enemy priest (Sojin), whom Kelly manages to keep at bay until the girl is safely back with the allied forces. The brave captain then goes on to basically fight and destroy the enemy forces all by his lonesome. As the title implies, this melodrama was rather typical of the mindless racism of 1920s Hollywood. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Claire Windsor, (more)
- 1927
The Tim McCoy western Winners of the Wilderness was shot simultaneously with McCoy's War Paint, using the same locations for both. Boasting a larger budget than the average "B"-western, the film casts McCoy as a courageous Indian scout, determined to negotiate an honorable peace between the white settlers and his Native American friends. Though his efforts are undercut by various villains pursuing their own agendae, our hero finally prevails. The film's most startling sequence finds a nude male prisoner being burned at the stake by hostile tribesmen -- hardly the sort of thing one might expect in a film essentially designed for preteen moviegoers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1927
Colonel Tim McCoy continued his string of successful historical Westerns with The Frontiersman, a muscular adventure set in 1813. John Dale (McCoy) and Abner Hawkins (Tom O'Brien) are members of Andrew Jackson's Tennessee Militia, assigned to make peace with the Creek Indian tribe in general and the treacherous White Snake (Frank Hagney) in particular. Dallying with the beauteous Athalie Burgoyne (Louise Lorraine), Dale is forced into dueling a rival (John Peters). Jackson (Russell Simpson) calls him in for a reprimand, and Dale falls instead for the general's pretty ward, Lucy (Claire Windsor). Jackson once again disapproves, but he changes his mind when Dale rescues the girl from the marauding Indians. Both Windsor and Lorraine had been elected WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1922 by the Hollywood publicists. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Claire Windsor, (more)
- 1927
Colonel Tim McCoy's third western for MGM starred the former Indian sign language interpreter as an army captain facing demotion until successfully defeating a gang of Mexican cutthroats. Set in old California, the film depicted several real-life American heroes, including Kit Carson (Fred Warren) and Brig. Gen. Stephen Kearney (played by Romaine Fielding who, for now obscure reasons, billed himself Edwin Terry). The only series western star MGM ever had, McCoy enjoyed five releases in 1927 alone. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy
- 1927
An average Tim McCoy Western, this film benefitted from the sumptuous production values that only MGM would lavish on what essentially was a series oater. McCoy, a former real-life Native American language translator, played Lieutenant Lang, charged with keeping the peace with the Indians by ridding the territory of white squatters and trappers. Only trading-post operator Marjorie Daw, refuses to leave, necessitating the inevitable rescue from the stalwart Lieutenant Lang. Charles Thurston appeared as real-life General Sherman and an unidentified actor portrayed General Custer. Although profitable, the MGM McCoy Western melodramas were discontinued at the changeover to sound and the studio never again produced series Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, William Fairbanks, (more)
- 1926
Colonel Tim McCoy had worked as an advisor on Indian sign languages and other things western during the making of James Cruze's The Covered Wagon in 1923. The newly founded MGM was the only major studio without a western line-up and tested the well-known war hero for a proposed series. McCoy proved just as good an actor as he was handsome, and the studio signed him to a star in a series of medium-budgeted westerns beginning with War Paint. W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke, a genial director who could create exciting screen fare without fuss and on time, helmed the inaugural McCoy feature which naturally dealt with Indians vs. the White Man. McCoy often expressed deep sympathy for Native Americans, and there are both good and bad Indians in his films. In this instance, a brave is humiliated in a fight with McCoy and vows vengeance on the White Man in general. McCoy saves the day, however, and without the usual stereotyping of his Native American cast. The film was made back-to-back with the second entry in the McCoy series, Winners of the Wilderness. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Pauline Starke, (more)
- 1925
Zane Grey's 1925 story of the great Buffalo hunts became a sprawling silent Western produced by Paramount and starring the studio's stalwart Jack Holt as a trader who uncovers a scheme to blame the Indians for a Buffalo massacre. The film's highlight, a breathtaking shot of wagons careening across a frozen lake, was used again in the studio's equally fine 1933 remake. To match the old footage, director Henry Hathaway employed some of the same actors and stunt performers. The original Thundering Herd has gained the reputation, along with the same year's Wild Horse Mesa (also starring Holt), as the finest Grey adaptation ever produced. Both Tim McCoy and Gary Cooper earned bit parts in this epic Western filmed on locations at Lone Pine, California. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Lois Wilson, (more)
- 1924
Jailed for a robbery he didn't commit, Bullets Bernard (Art Acord) enlists an alcoholic jailhouse lawyer (Paul Weigel) to defend him. The lawyer sobers up just enough to be effective, and Bernard is set free -- not a minute too soon. It turns out his girlfriend Shirley (Vane Truant) has been kidnapped and the villain, in cahoots with a crooked attorney, proves to be none other than the man who framed Bullets in the first place. The "Vane Truant" listed in the cast of this obscure silent Western is most likely Acord's real-life wife, actress Louise Lorraine, moonlighting from her steady job at Universal Studios. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Weigel, Art Acord, (more)
