Untold Stories: Tim McCoy, Actor, Army Officer, Cowboy, Indian Expert and Ally
Actor. American Indian folklore authority. U.S. Army Brigadier General. Historian. Cowboy. Friend of the Shoshone and Arapahoe. Politician. Sharpshooter. Old West expert. Rancher. Hollywood and TV star. Circus performer. Decorated war hero. No, I’m not describing a group of people—I’m describing one man, once popular but now almost lost to history, the remarkable and versatile Tim McCoy.
There are so many inspiring, beautiful stories about the great heroes of American history which are scarcely ever told. One happens on them accidentally—buried in a thick, out-of-print biography, in small print on a museum sign, casually and fleetingly mentioned in an obscure educational video. America cannot return to greatness in the future if we do not truly understand the greatness of our past. That is why I am writing an article series to tell a few of these little-known but moving or illustrative “untold stories” of American greatness.
Previous articles in this series have included how the white citizens of Greencastle, PA, saved their fellow black citizens from Confederate enslavers; how George Washington saved a slave family from being divided; the story of the first Native American Indian university graduate, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck; how a former slave became “Aunt Jemima,” the first living trademark; and John Callendar, the coward who became a Patriot hero.
Tim McCoy (1891-1978) was never a star on the level of Gary Cooper or Cary Grant, but in the 1930s and 1940s McCoy starred in a series of fun Western movies and had his own TV show in the 1950s. But McCoy was so very much more than just a popular star of early American Westerns.
McCoy and John Wayne co-star, full movie above.
Here’s some trivia from IMDb to give a brief snapshot of how diversely talented McCoy was:
“Not only an expert on the Old West, but an authority on [American] Indian folklore. One of the few white men still alive [at the time] who could converse in Indian sign language.
In real life McCoy was a sharpshooter and famed for his fast draw. A film editor once timed it on 35mm film with 24 frames per second. It took exactly six frames from the blur of his hand to the smoke issuing from the end of his gun.
Hosted local TV (Los Angeles) with The Tim McCoy Show (1952) for children on weekday afternoons and Saturdays in which he provided authentic history lessons on the Old West. He won a local Emmy but wasn’t there to pick it up. 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!’
Inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1974.
Rode several horses with different names during his long career…
During World War I, he served as an artillery officer in the US Army in France.
The Arapahoe Indians adopted Tim as a brother and called him ‘High Eagle.’
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1973.”
McCoy was so much more than a stuntman or entertainer. Just as his portrayals of cowboy heroes were rooted in a deep and impressive knowledge about, understanding of, and love for the Old West and Native American Indians, McCoy was a real-life fighter who put his life on the line serving his country. Unlike so many other actors, McCoy really lived like the heroes he played on screen. And that’s what makes him so exceptional.
“[From IMDb] One of the great stars of early American Westerns. McCoy was the son of an Irish soldier who later became police chief of Saginaw, Michigan, where McCoy was born. 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 keen knowledge of the ways and languages of the [Native American] Indian tribes in the area. He competed in numerous rodeos, then enlisted in the U.S. Army when America entered the First World War.
He was commissioned and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. At the end of World War I, he returned to his ranch in Wyoming, only to be called by Governor Bob Carry to the post of Adjutant General of Wyoming, a position he held until 1921. The position carried with it the rank of Brigadier General (a brevet promotion) and it has been reported that this made him the youngest general officer in the U.S. Army. His reputation as a friend to the Wind River Reservation Indians, both Arapahoe and Shoshone, preceded him and in 1922, he was asked by the head of Famous Players-Lasky, Jesse L. Lasky, to provide Indian extras for the Western extravaganza, The Covered Wagon (1923). He resigned from the state position and recruited several hundred Indians to the Utah movie location.”
That, it turned out, was the beginning of McCoy’s career in Hollywood. As Western shows proved very popular both in the form of movies and traveling shows, McCoy was successful at both types of entertainment. With help from his Indian friends, he was on his way to being a star.
“When the film [The Covered Wagon] wrapped, he was asked to choose several Indians to accompany him to Hollywood. There the production company developed a live 'prologue' to be presented just prior to the movie showing. The idea was a success and McCoy and his Indian group toured the U.S. and eventually, Europe as well. After touring this country and Europe with the Indians as publicity, McCoy returned to Hollywood and used his connections to obtain further work in the movies, both as a technical advisor and eventually as an actor. MGM speedily signed him to a contract to star in a series of Westerns and McCoy rapidly rose to stardom, making scores of Westerns and occasional non-Westerns.”
But McCoy was apparently not content with his Hollywood success—and not too proud to go back on the road and make money the hard way. Then, after a disappointing and seemingly catastrophic failure, McCoy wouldn’t let himself be defeated. After all, he could always go back to Hollywood, couldn’t he?
“In 1935, he left Hollywood, first to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and then with his own Wild West show. 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, but World War II and Jones's death in 1942 ended the project.”
Again, nothing could daunt Tim McCoy, not even a World War. He’d been an Army officer once, and he proved he hadn’t lost the skills that made him such a valuable soldier and leader.
“McCoy returned to the Army for the war and served with the Army Air Corps in Europe, winning several decorations and a promotion to full Colonel. He retired from the army and from films after the war, but emerged in the late 1940s for a few more films and some television work.
In 1942 he ran for the Republican Nomination for the U.S. Senate in Wyoming. He was defeated and returned to Hollywood and an uncertain future. In 1946 he sold his Wyoming ranch and moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the life of the gentleman farmer. While living there, he met and married Danish writer Inga Arvad [he had previously been married to Alice Miller, with whom he had three children]. He later built a home in Nogales, Arizona where Inga subsequently died in 1973. He spent his later years as a retired rancher. He died at the U.A. Army hospital at Ft. Hauchuca, Arizona on January 29 1978 at the age of 86.”
If ever there were a man who lived life to the fullest, that man was Tim McCoy.
There are some individuals who have been called archetypical Americans, but I think Tim McCoy was truly that. In his love for men of different races, his patriotism, his courage, his daring, his hard work, his rise from relative poverty to fame, his understanding of the past and creative imagination for the future, Tim McCoy exhibited so much of what is best about America. It’s time his memory was resurrected and he himself honored for the great man he was, a true hero of the American West.