Hero of the Month: Rex Bell
When I think back to people like Ronald Regan, Fred Grandy and Sonny Bono; they seem like anomolies, actors who went into politics. But it turns out that that is more common than I believed. Actor Rex Bell also went into politics as his acting career went on the wane.
Bell started appearing in films in the late the twenties with appearances in Wild West Romance (1928) and They Had to See Paris (1929). He easily made the transition to sound film, where he would become a cowboy star in such films as Lucky Larrigan (1932), Rainbow Ranch (1933), The Idaho Kid (1936), and Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die (1942) as Virgil Earp.
Bell’s only serial was Universal’s Battling With Buffalo Bill (1931), helping Tom Tyler, as the title character, battle a gambler trying to drive out settlers before they discover his gold strike.
It was in 1931, when his career was just taking off, Bell eloped and married former “It Girl” Clara Bow, who’s own career had all but died by the time sound came due to her many scandalous affairs (one of which was Bela Lugosi during his Broadway run in Dracula). Despite her notorious past Bow and Bell seemed to have had a happy marriage that lasted until his death in the early sixties.
After his career in film started winding down, Bell moved into politics where he served as the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1954 to 1962. Bell also made his final screen appearance during this time with a small uncredited part in The Misfits (1961). Sadly, Bell died of a heart attack while running for Governor of Nevada during the 1962 election.
