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  • ken-maynard-01.jpg KEN MAYNARD


    INFORMATION FROM IMDb

    Date of Birth
    21 July 1895,
    Vevay, Indiana, USA


    Date of Death
    23 March 1973,
    Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA


    Birth Name
    Kenneth Olin Maynard


    Height 6' (1.83 m)


    Spouses
    Bertha (1940 - 1968) (her death)
    Mary Leeper (1926 - ?)
    Jeanne Knudsen (1924 - ?)
    Arlie Green Harlan (? - ?) (1 child)


    Mini-Biography
    Studio publicity incorrectly puts his birthplace at Mission, Texas.
    Ken was a trick rider with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
    and later with Ringling Brothers and was also a champion rodeo rider.
    His movie debut, The Man Who Won (1923), was the first of many
    for this early cowboy movie superstar.
    He was famous for the stunts he could enact with his horse Tarzan.
    Maynard was the first singing cowboy in the movies.
    During the 1930s, he dropped out of movies and went back to rodeo work.
    He did a few more low-budget films in the early 1940s,
    and then retired for good except for bit parts.
    His last years were miserable; poor and unremembered, he lived alone in a trailer,
    an alcoholic who at his death was a victim of serious malnutrition.
    - IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan

    Trivia
    Brother of cowboy actor Kermit Maynard.


    The Vevay Public Library at 210 Ferry Street, Vevay, Indiana 47043, maintains an archive on him.


    His horse was Tarzan, a half-Arabian, half-American Saddle horse.
    Maynard bought him in the mid-1920's.
    Prince Norodom Sihanouk, former ruler of Cambodia, idolized Maynard.
    He said, "He was my idol as a cowboy 'dispenser of justice.'
    He had an incomparably beautiful white horse who was as intelligent as a man
    and behaved like an angel." Sihanouk never missed a Maynard movie in Phnom Penh,
    and when his father bought him two horses, "I could practice horse riding 'a la cowboy.'"


    In 1933 he raced follow cowboy star Hoot Gibson in the National Air Race.
    He flew his J6-7 Stearman biplane. Hoot crashed the plane he was flying.


    Maynard's saddle, used in his films from about 1935-on sold for $23,000
    at the High Noon auction in Mesa, AZ in January, 2003.


    Deteriorating finances forced Maynard to work for circuses as his film career waned after 1936,
    including an attempt that year at his very own "Wild West Circus",
    also called the Diamond K Wild West Show, which operated out of his California ranch.
    He completed at least three stints with the Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus from 1937-1940,
    and worked the Arthur Brothers Circus and the Biller Brothers Circus.


    The exact number of times Maynard was married is unknown.
    He was married at least three times but the number could be as high as five.
    He met his last wife Bertha, a high-wire artists,
    in the late 1930s while the two were employed with the Cole Brothers Circus.
    Maynard never had any children.


    Contrary to his screen image, off-screen Maynard was thoroughly disliked
    by pretty much everyone he worked with.
    He was a foul-mouthed, bullying alcoholic who threw his weight around
    on the set after he achieved stardom and delighted in terrorizing
    the cast and crews of his pictures.
    He was variously described as everything from "a bad-tempered drunk" to "downright mean".
    This behavior, coupled with his constant and heavy drinking,
    eventually cost him his film career, despite having numerous opportunities
    to redeem himself.


    For the last few years of his life he lived in a broken-down house trailer
    on an empty lot in North Hollywood, CA, and was pretty much kept alive
    by his brother Kermit Maynard, who visited him regularly,
    bringing him food and cleaning up both Ken and the trailer,
    as Ken had gained a tremendous amount of weight, which caused him health problems,
    and was usually too drunk to take care of himself.


    From 1932 through 1940 nearly every character he played was named Ken;
    from 1943 through 1944 all the characters he played were named either Ken Maynard,
    Marshal Ken Maynard or U.S. Marshal Ken Maynard.


    According to Western film scholar William K. Everson,
    "Maynard's two series at Universal were something else again.
    Although he was still in good physical shape, he was beginning to use doubles
    (either his brother Kermit or Cliff Lyons) rather more.


    His propensity for the bottle was increasingly making him more unreliable in films
    where he had to deliver dialogue.
    Since he was apparently a somewhat abrasive and surly character OFF-screen,
    his ability to project a friendly and likable ON-screen certainly indicated
    some acting ability.


    Maynard frequently ad-libbed, especially in scenes where he had forgotten his dialogue.
    Tom London, an actor who appeared in the Guinness Book of Records as appearing in more films
    than any other actor, was quoted as saying about working with Maynard:


    "I did six pictures with him, then refused offers after that.
    He was mean to his horses and mean to the people he thought he could buffalo.
    He was often half drunk on a picture and sometimes didn't even show up.".


    Salary
    Janice Meredith (1924) $1,000 /week
    In Old Santa Fe (1934) $10,000 /week
    Arizona Whirlwind (1944) $850


    Filmography
    Actor
    1972 The Marshal of Windy Hollow ...Texas Ranger
    1970 Bigfoot ...Mr. Bennett
    1944 Harmony Trail ...Marshal Ken Maynard
    1944 Arizona Whirlwind ...Ken Maynard
    1944 Westward Bound ...Ken Maynard
    1943 Death Valley Rangers ...Ken Maynard
    1943 Blazing Guns ...Marshal Ken Maynard
    1943 The Law Rides Again ...U.S. Marshal Ken Maynard
    1943 Wild Horse Stampede ...Marshal Ken Maynard
    1940 Lightning Strikes West ...Lightning Ken Morgan
    1940 Phantom Rancher ...Ken Mitchell
    1939 Death Rides the Range ...Ken Baxter
    1939 Flaming Lead ...Ken Clark
    1938 Six-Shootin' Sheriff ...Jim Trigger Morton
    1938 Whirlwind Horseman ...Ken Morton
    1937 Trailin' Trouble ...John Friendly Fields / Blackie Burke
    1937 Boots of Destiny ...Ken Crawford
    1936 Law and Order ...Ken Marshall
    1936 The Cattle Thief ...Ken
    1936 Avenging Waters ...Ken Morley
    1936 Heroes of the Range ...Ken Smith
    1935 Lawless Riders ...Ken Manley
    1935 Western Courage ...Ken Baxter
    1935 Heir to Trouble ...Ken Armstrong
    1935 Western Frontier ...Ken Masters
    1934 Mystery Mountain ...Ken Williams
    1934 In Old Santa Fe ...Ken aka Kentucky
    1934 Doomed to Die ...Ken Masters
    1934 Honor of the Range ...Sheriff Ken Bellamy / Clem Bellamy
    1934 Wheels of Destiny... Ken Manning
    1933 Gun Justice ...Ken Lance
    1933 Fargo Express ...Ken Benton
    1933 Flying Fury ...Ken Masters
    1933 The Trail Drive ...Ken Benton
    1933 The Fiddlin' Buckaroo ...Fiddlin'
    1933 King of the Arena ...Captain Ken Kenton
    1933 The Lone Avenger ...Cal Weston
    1933 Phantom Thunderbolt ...Thunderbolt Kid
    1933 Drum Taps ...Ken Cartwright
    1932 Tombstone Canyon ...Ken
    1932 Between Fighting Men ...Ken
    1932 What Price Beauty? ...Ken Maynard - in Nightclub (uncredited)
    1932 Come On, Tarzan ...Ken Benson
    1932 Dynamite Ranch ...Blaze Howell
    1932 Whistlin' Dan ...Whistlin' Dan Savage Posing as Ed Black
    1932 Hell-Fire Austin ...Ken 'Hell-Fire' Austin
    1932 Texas Gun Fighter ...Bill Dane
    1932 The Sunset Trail ...Jim Brandon
    1931 The Pocatello Kid ...The Pocatello Kid / Sheriff Jim Bledsoe
    1931 Branded Men ...Rod Whitaker
    1931 Range Law ...Hap Conners
    1931 Arizona Terror ...The Arizonian
    1931 Alias the Bad Man ...Ranger Ken Neville - posing as Red River Gantz
    1931 Two's Company ...Blackie Weed
    1930 Fighting Thru; or, California in 1878 ...Dan Barton
    1930 Sons of the Saddle ...Jim Brandon
    1930 Song of the Caballero ...Juan Posing as El Lobo
    1930 Mountain Justice ...Ken McTavish
    1930 The Fighting Legion ...Dave Hayes
    1930 The Voice of Hollywood No. 9 (Short) ...Ken Maynard (uncredited)
    1930 Lucky Larkin ...'Lucky' Larkin
    1930 Parade of the West ...Bud Rand
    1929 Señor Americano ...Lieutenant Michael Banning
    1929 The Wagon Master ...The Rambler
    1929 The California Mail ...Bob Scott
    1929 The Lawless Legion ...Cal Stanley
    1929 The Royal Rider ...Dick Scott
    1929 Cheyenne ...Cal Roberts
    1928 The Phantom City ...Tim Kelly
    1928 The Glorious Trail ...Pat O'Leary
    1928 The Code of the Scarlet ...Bruce Kenton
    1928 The Upland Rider ...Dan Dailey
    1928 The Canyon of Adventure ...Steven Bancroft
    1928 The Wagon Show ...Bob Mason
    1927 Gun Gospel ...Granger Hume
    1927 The Red Raiders ...Lieutenant John Scott
    1927 The Devil's Saddle ...Harry Morrel
    1927 The Land Beyond the Law ...Jerry Steele
    1927 Somewhere in Sonora ...Bob Bishop
    1927 The Overland Stage ...Jack Jessup
    1926 The Unknown Cavalier ...Tom Drury
    1926 Senor Daredevil ...Don Luis O'Flaherty
    1926 Haunted Range ...Terry Bladwin
    1926 The Grey Vulture ...Bart Miller / Sir Arthur
    1925 North Star ...Noel Blake
    1925 Fighting Courage ...Richard Kingsley
    1925 The Demon Rider ...Billy Dennis
    1924 Winning a Woman ...Tex Sherwood
    1924 The Beautiful Rebel ...Paul Revere
    1923 Somebody Lied (Short)
    1923 Cameo Kirby (uncredited)
    1923 The Gunfighter (uncredited)
    1923 The Man Who Won ...Conroy
    1923 Brass Commandments (uncredited)

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • Kenneth Olin "Ken" Maynard (July 21, 1895 – March 23, 1973)
    was an American motion picture stuntman and actor.
    He appeared in more than 90 films over 20 years with his white cowboy hat,
    fancy shirt, and a pair of six-shooters.


    Ken Maynard is connected to Duke
    through the Warner Brothers series of films
    that Ken was unable to finish.


    1932. Haunted Gold (Warner Bros)
    1932. Ride Him Cowboy (Warner Bros)
    1932. The Big Stampede (Warner Bros)
    1933. The Telegraph Trail (Warner Bros)
    1933. Somewhere in Sonora (Warner Bros)
    1933. The Man from Montery (Warner Bros)
    were all remakes of Ken Maynard movies made in the '20's


    These Duke versions were made, to use up the unused film, that WB had.


    Duke's new versions still featured Ken Maynard and his miracle horse.
    but brought in Duke and Duke! The Wonder Horse,
    and substituted them into the films!!
    If you look closely, you can spot the difference,
    between the two actors.
    Even the two horses, are noticeably different.

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().