Hero of the Month: Buck Jones
I’ve always had a misconception about Buck Jones, that he was temporarily out of work in the late thirties until his career was revived at Monogram with the Rough Riders series, but a quick look at his filmography shows that he worked steadily throughout his entire film career. A native of Montana, Jones learned to ride and rope, two things that served him well during his tenure in the U.S. Calvary and his days as a trick rider for first the Miller Brothers Wild West Show and then the Ringling Brothers.
He came to Hollywood in 1917 as a stunt performer but was promoted to star performer in 1919 for Fox studios, who promoted him as an in house rival to Tom Mix. Along with his horse Silver, Jones made popular films like Just Pals (1920), Big Dan (1923), and The War Horse (1927). When sound came Jones was let go by Fox and moved to Columbia where he made such sagebrush sagas as Desert Vengeance (1931) and White Eagle (1932).
From there he moved to Universal and began his serial career with Gordon of Ghost City (1933), which was followed by The Red Rider (1934), The Roaring West (1935), and The Phantom Rider (1936). During this time he also appeared in western features for Universal like The Crimson Trail (1935), Ride ‘Em Cowboy (1936) and Empty Saddles (1937), most of which he produced as well. Jones finished out the decade back at Columbia making The Overland Express (1938) and The Stranger From Arizona (1939).
The Forties began with Jones returning to serials. Columbia starred him in a fifteen chapter remake of his decade earlier hit feature White Eagle (1941), then Universal teamed him with Dick Foran, Leo Carillo, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Noah Berry, Jr., and Glenn Strange as the Riders of Death Valley (1941). Then it was off to Mongram where Jones made an extremely popular series of westerns with Col. Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton as The Rough Riders. Jones racked up an impressive ten films in less than two years with the studio, including Arizona Bound (1941), Ghost Town Law (1942) and Riders of the West (1942).
Sadly Jones was killed soon after while attending a party in his honor at the Coconut Grove when the establishment caught fire. What happened has been the subject of much heated debate. Some say he was killed trying to escape with others, some say he made it out and then died going back in to save people. For me I’ll believe the latter theory, that a man who played a hero so many times on the screen had attempted to do the same in life.
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