Jack Hoxie
Encyclopedia
Jack Hoxie was an American rodeo
performer and motion picture actor whose career was most prominent in the silent film
era of the 1910s through the 1930s. Hoxie is best recalled for his roles in Westerns
and never strayed from the genre.
(now the state of Oklahoma
), he was the son of a veterinarian father named Bart 'Doc' Hoxie who was killed in a horse accident just weeks before Jack's birth, and a half–Nez Perce mother (some reports list her as Cherokee
) named Matilda E. Quick Hoxie. After his father's death, Matilda Hoxie moved to Northern Idaho where at an early age, Jack became a working cowboy
and ranch hand. Matilda Hoxie married a rancher and horse trader named Calvin Scott Stone. The family then relocated to Boise where Jack worked as a packer for a U.S. Army Fort in the area, continuing to hone his skill as a horseback rider while competing in rodeos. In 1909 he met the performer Dick Stanley and joined his Wild West show. It was during this period that Jack met and married his first wife, Hazel Panting, who was a Western trick rider with the outfit.
after his divorce from Hazel Panting.
Through the early 1920s, Jack Hoxie became an extremely popular Western film star and worked for such film companies as Pathé
, Arrow, National Film Corp. and Sunset Productions
. In 1923, Universal Pictures
head Carl Laemmle
put Hoxie under contract and soon Hoxie's career was on par with that of other Western stars of the era: Art Acord, Harry Carey
and Hoot Gibson
. Hoxie appeared in such high profile films as 1923's Where Is This West? with newcomer Mary Philbin
and 1924's Universal promotional film Hello, 'Frisco, alongside such popular actors of the era as: Jackie Coogan
, Norman Kerry
, Barbara La Marr
, Antonio Moreno
, Anna Q. Nilsson
, Bebe Daniels
and Rin Tin Tin
. The film was designed to showcase Universal's roster of their most popular actors. Hoxie, often atop his horses Fender and Dynamite, would star alongside such actresses as Marceline Day
, Alice Day
, Helen Holmes
Lottie Pickford
and Fay Wray
in Westerns throughout the silent era of the 1910s and 1920s.
Also, during this period, Jack's younger half-brother Al Stone began to appear with Jack in films. Al would eventually become a successful actor in the Western genre after changing his name to Al Hoxie and appearing in a series of films by actor/director J.P. McGowan. In 1925, Jack's stepfather Scott Stone was convicted of the kidnap-murder of Los Angeles sisters May and Nina Martin and sentenced to death, a sentence that was commuted to life without parole after District Attorney Keyes told the Governor his office had made mistakes in the case; both Hoxie and Stone's son Al refused to assist in his defense.
In 1926, Laemmle and Universal chose Jack to star as Buffalo Bill Cody in Metropolitan Pictures' The Last Frontier, co-starring William Boyd
. The film would prove enormously commercially successful and Hoxie is often best recalled for his performance in the film.
In 1927, however, Hoxie allegedly became dissatisfied with his contract at Universal and refused to renegotiate for another stint at the studio. Hoxie would continue throughout the later 1920s making films of lesser quality with lower budget film studios. He made his last silent film Forbidden Trail in 1929 before pursuing further work in circuit rodeos, carnivals, and the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show.
, who had appeared alongside Hoxie in a number of earlier films.
He eventually divorced and married his third wife, Dixie Starr. The couple briefly operated a dude ranch in Hereford, Arizona
called the Broken Arrow Ranch. After a fire consumed the ranch, Jack once again began appearing in Wild West shows, often billed as the 'Famous Western Screen Star'. Hoxie would make appearances throughout the 1940s and well into the 1950s before finally making his last public appearance as a performer in 1959 for the Bill Tatum Circus.
Jack divorced Dixie Starr and married his fourth wife Bonnie Avis Showalter and the couple retired to a small ranch in Arkansas
, then later moving to his mother Matilda's old homestead in Oklahoma. In his later years, Jack Hoxie developed leukemia
and died in 1965 at the age of 80. He was interred at the Willowbar Cemetery in Keyes, Oklahoma
with the epitaph inscription "A Star in Life - A Star in Heaven".
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
performer and motion picture actor whose career was most prominent in the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
era of the 1910s through the 1930s. Hoxie is best recalled for his roles in Westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
and never strayed from the genre.
Early life
Born John Hartford Hoxie in Kingfisher Creek in Indian TerritoryIndian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
(now the state of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
), he was the son of a veterinarian father named Bart 'Doc' Hoxie who was killed in a horse accident just weeks before Jack's birth, and a half–Nez Perce mother (some reports list her as Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) named Matilda E. Quick Hoxie. After his father's death, Matilda Hoxie moved to Northern Idaho where at an early age, Jack became a working cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
and ranch hand. Matilda Hoxie married a rancher and horse trader named Calvin Scott Stone. The family then relocated to Boise where Jack worked as a packer for a U.S. Army Fort in the area, continuing to hone his skill as a horseback rider while competing in rodeos. In 1909 he met the performer Dick Stanley and joined his Wild West show. It was during this period that Jack met and married his first wife, Hazel Panting, who was a Western trick rider with the outfit.
Film career
Jack Hoxie continued to tour with circuit rodeos until 1913 when he was approached to perform in the Western drama film short The Tragedy of Big Eagle Mine. Now billing himself as Hart Hoxie (a moniker he would use until 1919), Hoxie would continue working through the 1910s in popular Western shorts, often in small, but well-received roles. In 1919, after appearing in approximately thirty-five films, he was cast in the starring role in the Paul Hurst directed Lightning Bryce serials as main character Sky Bryce. Hoxie began billing himself as Jack Hoxie and would use this name permanently. It was during this time that he met and married his second wife, actress and frequent co-star Marin SaisMarin Sais
Marin Sais was an American motion picture actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s...
after his divorce from Hazel Panting.
Through the early 1920s, Jack Hoxie became an extremely popular Western film star and worked for such film companies as Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
, Arrow, National Film Corp. and Sunset Productions
Sunset Productions
Sunset Productions was a television syndication division of Warner Bros. which existed in the 1950s.-Overview:Sunset Productions is best known as the company identified on a package of black-and-white Warner Bros. cartoons distributed in television syndication in the early 1950s...
. In 1923, Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
head Carl Laemmle
Carl Laemmle
Carl Laemmle , born in Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany, was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios - Universal...
put Hoxie under contract and soon Hoxie's career was on par with that of other Western stars of the era: Art Acord, Harry Carey
Harry Carey
Harry Carey was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor.-Early life and career:...
and Hoot Gibson
Hoot Gibson
Hoot Gibson was an American rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, director and producer.-Early life and career:...
. Hoxie appeared in such high profile films as 1923's Where Is This West? with newcomer Mary Philbin
Mary Philbin
Mary Philbin was a notable film actress of the silent film era. Philbin is probably best remembered for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera opposite screen legend Lon Chaney and Dea in The Man Who Laughs...
and 1924's Universal promotional film Hello, 'Frisco, alongside such popular actors of the era as: Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan
John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
, Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry was an American actor whose career spanned over twenty-five years in the motion picture industry beginning in the silent era at the end of World War I.-Biography:...
, Barbara La Marr
Barbara La Marr
Barbara La Marr was an American stage and film actress, cabaret artist and screenwriter.La Marr was known as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after a Hearst newspaper feature writer, Adela Rogers St...
, Antonio Moreno
Antonio Moreno
Antonio "Tony" Moreno was a notable Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.- Biography :...
, Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Quirentia Nilsson was a Swedish born American actress who achieved success in American silent movies.-Background:...
, Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels
Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain...
and Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...
. The film was designed to showcase Universal's roster of their most popular actors. Hoxie, often atop his horses Fender and Dynamite, would star alongside such actresses as Marceline Day
Marceline Day
Marceline Day was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s....
, Alice Day
Alice Day
Alice Day was a film actor who began her career as of the Sennett Bathing Beauties....
, Helen Holmes
Helen Holmes
Helen Holmes was an American silent film actress.-Early life:While there is no known official birthplace record, Helen Holmes stated in an interview that she was born in South Bend, Indiana, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She began working as a photographer's model but turned to acting,...
Lottie Pickford
Lottie Pickford
Lottie Pickford was a Canadian-born silent film actress, socialite, and sister to Mary Pickford and Jack Pickford. Her career is often overshadowed by that of her siblings and though she was a notable figure in the 1920s her films and role in the Pickford acting family is now largely forgotten...
and Fay Wray
Fay Wray
Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
in Westerns throughout the silent era of the 1910s and 1920s.
Also, during this period, Jack's younger half-brother Al Stone began to appear with Jack in films. Al would eventually become a successful actor in the Western genre after changing his name to Al Hoxie and appearing in a series of films by actor/director J.P. McGowan. In 1925, Jack's stepfather Scott Stone was convicted of the kidnap-murder of Los Angeles sisters May and Nina Martin and sentenced to death, a sentence that was commuted to life without parole after District Attorney Keyes told the Governor his office had made mistakes in the case; both Hoxie and Stone's son Al refused to assist in his defense.
In 1926, Laemmle and Universal chose Jack to star as Buffalo Bill Cody in Metropolitan Pictures' The Last Frontier, co-starring William Boyd
William Boyd (actor)
William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...
. The film would prove enormously commercially successful and Hoxie is often best recalled for his performance in the film.
In 1927, however, Hoxie allegedly became dissatisfied with his contract at Universal and refused to renegotiate for another stint at the studio. Hoxie would continue throughout the later 1920s making films of lesser quality with lower budget film studios. He made his last silent film Forbidden Trail in 1929 before pursuing further work in circuit rodeos, carnivals, and the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show.
Later life
During the 1930s, Jack Hoxie made a brief comeback in films after signing a contract with Majestic Pictures. The films however, did little to revive Jack's career as a film actor and he once again hit the rodeo circuit. Hoxie's last film appearance would be in the 1933 release Trouble Busters with actor Lane ChandlerLane Chandler
Lane Chandler was an American actor specializing in Westerns.-Early life:He was born as Robert Chandler Oakes on a ranch near Culbertson, Montana, the son of a horse rancher. At an early age, the family relocated to Helena, Montana, where he graduated from high school...
, who had appeared alongside Hoxie in a number of earlier films.
He eventually divorced and married his third wife, Dixie Starr. The couple briefly operated a dude ranch in Hereford, Arizona
Hereford, Arizona
Hereford is an unincorporated community in Cochise County along the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is south of Sierra Vista and is a part of the Sierra Vista-Douglas micropolitan area...
called the Broken Arrow Ranch. After a fire consumed the ranch, Jack once again began appearing in Wild West shows, often billed as the 'Famous Western Screen Star'. Hoxie would make appearances throughout the 1940s and well into the 1950s before finally making his last public appearance as a performer in 1959 for the Bill Tatum Circus.
Jack divorced Dixie Starr and married his fourth wife Bonnie Avis Showalter and the couple retired to a small ranch in Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, then later moving to his mother Matilda's old homestead in Oklahoma. In his later years, Jack Hoxie developed leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
and died in 1965 at the age of 80. He was interred at the Willowbar Cemetery in Keyes, Oklahoma
Keyes, Oklahoma
Keyes is a town in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 324 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Keyes is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:...
with the epitaph inscription "A Star in Life - A Star in Heaven".
External links
- Jack Hoxie at the Old Corral
- Jack Hoxie at Silents Are Golden
- Devil Dog Dawson - The only known footage surviving from this 19211921 in film-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1921:U.S.A. unless stated*$10,000 Under a Pillow, silent film directed by Frank Moser*The Ace of Hearts, silent film directed by Wallace Worsley*Across the Divide, silent film directed by John Holloway...
Hoxie film was the subject of a PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
History DetectivesHistory DetectivesHistory Detectives is a documentary television series on PBS. A group of researchers help people to seek answers to various historical questions they have, usually centering around a family heirloom, an old house or other historic object or structure...
investigation - Lone Pine Silent Films
- New York Times Movies
- Jack Hoxie exhibit at the Cimarron Heritage Center