Tim McCoy on a horse, 1930’s. Tim McCoy Collection, Coll. # 6415. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.
Thanks to a continuing grant from the NHPRC, the American Heritage Center has recently processed the Tim McCoy papers and a new, online inventory is available for this collection.
Tim McCoy was a mid-20th century Hollywood Western movie actor, military officer, and promoter of the American Wild West. He was born in Saginaw, Michigan on April 10, 1891, the son of an Irish Union Civil War soldier and Police Chief. As a young man he had a desire to go west and while attending college he decided to seek his adventure and purchased a one-way train ticket. He ended up in Lander, Wyoming where he worked as a ranch hand and learned Native American sign language and customs from the Indians in the area, eventually he settled in Thermopolis, Wyoming.
Tim McCoy with children at Fort Larned, Kansas, 1958, Tim McCoy Collection, Coll. # 6415. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.
He joined the army and served in the cavalry during World War I and became Adjutant General of Wyoming after the war. In 1922, he resigned his commission in order to assist with recruiting Indians and translating for the Western film “The Covered Wagon.” McCoy and his Indian group toured the U.S. and Europe promoting the film. When McCoy returned to Hollywood after the tour, MGM signed him to a contract to star in a series of Westerns. McCoy rapidly rose to stardom, making scores of Westerns and occasional non-Westerns, transitioning from silent film to talkies. By the mid 1930s the popularity of Tim McCoy and his Western films was beginning to wane, partially because of the Depression. In 1935 Tim McCoy left Hollywood to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and later formed his own wild west show called “Col. Tim McCoy’s Wild West and Rough Riders of the World,” in 1938 his show went bankrupt and closed.
He returned to films in 1940, but World War II would call him back to the Army. After the war he retired from both film and the military, but continued to make occasional movie and television appearances including his own television show, “The Tim McCoy Show” in 1952. He also wrote short articles, stories, and poetry about the American West, Indians, and cowboys, including his autobiography, “Tim McCoy Remembers the West,” in 1977. During his life he was married twice, first to Agnes Miller, which ended in divorce in 1931 and then to Inga Arvad until her death from cancer in 1973. He had a total of five children, three with Agnes and two with Inga. On January 29, 1978 at the age of 86 Tim McCoy died of heart failure at the Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center/Hospital in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
–Jamie Greene, Processing Archivist