TIM McCOY
Information From IMDb
Date of Birth
10 April 1891, Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Date of Death
29 January 1978, Nogales, Arizona, USA (heart attack)
Birth Name
Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy
Height
5' 11" (1.80 m)
Spouse
Inga Arvad (1945 - 1973) (her death)
Alice Miller (? - 1931) (divorced) 2 children
Trivia
Inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1974.
The Arapahoe Indians adopted Tim as a brother and called him "High Eagle."
Not only an expert on the Old West, but an authority on Indian folklore. One of the few white men still alive who could converse in Indian sign language.
Rode several horses with different names during his long career. In his earlier films he rode a snow-white horse named "Pal". In the "Rough Riders" series he mounted a black stallion called "Baron" and (later) "Ace".
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 Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1973.
Personal Quotes
"I've never been sentimental about my horse.
The horse doesn't give a damn about you.
If you want to know the truth - horses are dumb."
Mini Biography
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 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 colonel, eventually being posted as Adjutant General of Wyoming, a position he held until 1921. Resigning from the Army, he returned to ranching and concurrently served as territorial Indian agent. 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 brought hundreds of Indians to Hollywood and served as technical advisor on the film. After touring the 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 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 .. In 1935, he left Hollywood, first to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and then with his own Wild West show. 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. McCoy returned to the Army for the war and served with the Army Air Corps in Europe, winning several decorations. 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. He married Danish writer Inga Arvad and spent his later years as a retired gentleman rancher, occasionally touring with his own Wild West show. He died in 1978 at the age of 86.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver
Filmography
1. Requiem for a Gunfighter (1965) .... Judge Irving Short
2. Run of the Arrow (1957) (as Colonel Tim McCoy) .... Gen. Allen
... aka Hot Lead (USA: video title)
3. Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) (as Col. Tim McCoy) .... Colonel, U.S. Cavalry
... aka Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days (USA: complete title)
4. "The Tim McCoy Show" (1952) TV series
5. West of the Law (1942) .... Marshal Tim McCall
6. Riders of the West (1942) .... Marshal Tim McCall
7. Down Texas Way (1942) .... U. S. Marshal Tim McCall
8. Ghost Town Law (1942) .... Marshal Tim McCall
9. Below the Border (1942) .... Marshal Tim McCall
10. Forbidden Trails (1941) .... Marshal Tim McCall, posing as Ace Porter
11. The Gunman from Bodie (1941) .... Marshal McCall
... aka Gun Man from Bodie
12. Arizona Bound (1941) .... Marshal Tim McCall, posing as 'Parson" McCall
... aka Rough Riders
13. The Texas Marshal (1941) .... Marshal 'Trigger Tim' Rand
14. Outlaws of the Rio Grande (1941) .... Marshal Tim Barton
15. Riders of Black Mountain (1940) .... Marshal Tim Donovan
... aka Black Mountain Stage
16. Arizona Gang Busters (1940) .... Trigger Tim Rand
... aka Arizona Gun Busters (USA: TV title)
... aka Gangbusters (USA: TV title)
17. Gun Code (1940) .... Marshal Tim Hammond, alias Tim Hays
18. Frontier Crusader (1940) .... 'Trigger' Tim Rand
19. Texas Renegades (1940) .... Silent Tim Smith
20. Trigger Fingers (1939) .... 'Lightning' Bill Carson
21. The Fighting Renegade (1939) .... Lightning Bill Carson aka El Puma
22. Straight Shooter (1939) .... 'Lightning' Bill Carson / Sam Brown
23. Outlaws' Paradise (1939) .... Captain William 'Lightning Bill' Carson / Trigger Mallory
24. Texas Wildcats (1939) .... 'Lightning' Bill Carson
25. Code of the Cactus (1939) .... 'Lightning' Bill Carson posing as Miguel
26. Six-Gun Trail (1938) .... Captain William 'Lightning Bill' Carson
27. Lightning Carson Rides Again (1938) (as Colonel Tim McCoy) .... 'Lightning Bill' Carson, posing as Jose
28. Phantom Ranger (1938) .... Tim Hayes
29. Two Gun Justice (1938) .... Tim
30. Code of the Rangers (1938) .... Tim Strong
31. West of Rainbow's End (1938) .... Tim Hart
32. The Traitor (1936) .... Sergeant Tim Vallance, Texas Rangers
33. Ghost Patrol (1936) .... Tim Caverly
34. The Lion's Den (1936) .... Tim Barton
... aka Single Shot Barton (UK)
35. Aces and Eights (1936) .... 'Gentleman' Tim Madigan
36. Lightnin' Bill Carson (1936) .... U. S. Marshal 'Lightnin' Bill Carson
37. Border Caballero (1936) .... Tim Ross
38. Roarin' Guns (1936) .... Tim Corwin
39. Bulldog Courage (1935) .... Slim Braddock/Tim Braddock
40. Man from Guntown (1935) .... Tim Hanlon
41. Riding Wild (1935) .... Tim Malloy/Tex Ravelle
42. The Outlaw Deputy (1935) .... Tim Mallory
43. Justice of the Range (1935) .... Tim Condon
44. Fighting Shadows (1935) .... Constable Tim O'Hara
45. The Revenge Rider (1935) .... Tim O'Neil
46. Law Beyond the Range (1935) .... Tim McDonald
47. Square Shooter (1935) .... Tim Baxter
48. The Westerner (1934) .... Tim Addison
49. Prescott Kid (1934) .... Tim Hamlin
50. Beyond the Law (1934) .... Tim Weston
51. A Man's Game (1934) .... Tim
52. Hell Bent for Love (1934) .... Police CaptainTim Daley
... aka No Speed Limit (UK: new title)
53. Voice in the Night (1934) .... Tim Dale
54. Speed Wings (1934) .... Tim
... aka Speedwings
55. Straightaway (1933) .... Tim Dawson
56. Hold the Press (1933) .... Tim Collins
57. Police Car 17 (1933) .... Tim Conlon
58. Rusty Rides Alone (1933) .... Tim 'Rusty' Burke
59. The Whirlwind (1933) .... Tim Reynolds
60. Silent Men (1933) .... Tim Richards
61. Man of Action (1933) .... Tim Barlow
62. End of the Trail (1932) .... Captain Tim Travers
63. The Western Code (1932) .... Tim Barrett
64. Fighting for Justice (1932) .... Tim Keene
65. Cornered (1932) .... Sheriff Tim Laramie
66. Daring Danger (1932) .... Tim Madigan
67. Two-Fisted Law (1932) .... Tim Clark
68. The Riding Tornado (1932) .... Tim Torrant
69. Texas Cyclone (1932) .... 'Texas' Grant
70. The Fighting Fool (1932) .... Sheriff Tim Collins
71. The Fighting Marshal (1931) .... Tim Benton
72. Shotgun Pass (1931) .... Tim Walker
73. The One Way Trail (1931) .... Tim Allen
74. Heroes of the Flames (1931) .... Bob Darrow
75. The Indians Are Coming (1930) .... Jack Manning
76. The Desert Rider (1929) .... Jed Tyler
77. Sioux Blood (1929) .... Flood
78. The Overland Telegraph (1929) .... Capt. Allen
79. Morgan's Last Raid (1929) .... Capt. Daniel Clairbourne
80. The Bushranger (1928) .... Edward
81. Beyond the Sierras (1928) .... The Masked Stranger
82. The Adventurer (1928) .... Jim McClellan
... aka The Gallant Gringo
83. Riders of the Dark (1928) .... Lt. Crane
84. Wyoming (1928) .... Lt. Jack Colton
... aka The Rock of Friendship
85. The Law of the Range (1928) .... Jim Lockhart
86. Spoilers of the West (1927) .... Lt. Lang
87. Foreign Devils (1927) .... Capt. Robert Kelly
88. The Frontiersman (1927) .... John Dale
89. California (1927) .... Capt. Archibald Gillespie
90. Winners of the Wilderness (1927) (as Colonel Tim McCoy) .... Col. Sir Dennis O'Hara
91. War Paint (1926) .... Lt. Tim Marshall
92. The Thundering Herd (1925) (as Col. T.J. McCoy) .... Burn Hudnall
... aka In the Days of the Thundering Herd (USA)