Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Tom Mix
Tom Mix Facts
| Sign | Capricorn |
| Born |
Jan 6, 1880 Mix Run, Pennsylvania |
| Died |
Oct 12, 1940 Florence, AZ |
| Age | Died at 60 |
| Total Facts | 37 |
4/13/02: His guns were stolen from the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, OK.
A small stone memorial marks the site of Tom Mix's death on State Route 79 and the nearby gully is named "Tom Mix Wash". The plaque on the marker bears the inscription: "In memory of Tom Mix whose spirit left his body on this spot and whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old West in the minds of living men."
According to author Jeff Guinn, he was good friends with Frank Hamer, the Texas Ranger who became famous for bringing to justice the members of the Newton Brothers gang (1924) and for tracking down the outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (1934).
Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.
At his funeral Rudy Vallee sang "Empty Saddles"
At one point during the height of his career, he had all his cars fitted with custom-manufactured tires specially molded to leave tracks with his initials TM in the road.
Author Clifford Irving wrote a "historical fiction" novel, "Tom Mix and Pancho Villa", about Mix's involvement with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and his supposedly joining Villa's army in the fight against dictator Porfirio Díaz in the bloody Mexican civil wars of the early 20th century. While it's known that Mix did spend time in Mexico during that violent era and had mentioned years later that he had in fact met Villa, it's not known if their association was as close as Irving claimed it was in the novel.
Between 1980 and 2004, 21 Tom Mix festivals were held during the month of September, most of them in DuBois, Pennsylvania.
Bruce Willis played Tom Mix in the 1988 Blake Edwards film Sunset with James Garner as Wyatt Earp.
Charter member of the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1958.
Credited with revolutionizing the Western film genre by eschewing realism in favor of more fantastical, lighthearted story lines and picturesque visual elements (clean, expensively tailored costumes, etc). He is often presented by film historians as the first 'rhinestone' cowboy.
Daughter with Olive Mix, Ruth Mix.
Daughter with Victoria Forde, Thomasina
Despite stories to the contrary, he was not a member of President Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
Great uncle of DeWalt Mix.
He deserted the army to marry his first wife, Grace Allin; the fact that he was a deserter did not come up until after his death, by which time he was so famous that the army had to hold its tongue and give him a full military burial. This dovetails neatly into the known facts and into the legend of Tom Mix.
He is mentioned in the song "TV is the Thing This Year" (1953) written by William Sanford and Phil Medley.
He never thought much of his acting ability. Once when a director asks him to change expressions, he responded "Which one do you want? One? two? or three?".
He was Peter Cushing's childhood hero.
In The Beverly Hillbillies, Jed Clampett's reason for going to Beverly Hills was to live in the same place as Tom Mix.
In 1904 he was a bartender and marshal in the small town of Dewey, OK, which is also the hometown of actor/filmmaker Adam Ropp. Ropp is a close friend of the Tom Mix Museum and visits on a regular basis. Ironically, Ropp's directorial debut (Last Conversation (2003)) was shot in Dewey and starred Mix's great, great grandnephew, Bret Mix.
In the 2008 movie Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, the mysterious little boy claiming to be Walter Collins finally confesses to the police that the reason he ran away to Los Angeles was in hopes of meeting Tom Mix and his horse Tony.
In the series Bewitched in the episode "Serena's Youth Pill", Darin tries to convince young Larry Tate to drink the magic antidote by telling him it would help Larry grow up to be a cowboy like Tom Mix.
In Woody Allen's 1983 film Zelig, archival footage is shown of Tom Mix attending a party at Hearst Castle near San Simeon, California.
Made over $6,000,000 during his career but an extravagant lifestyle had sharply reduced his estate to a modest amount by the time he died.
Never had kind words for John Wayne because, many believe, he was afraid that Wayne would push him out of the limelight. That hatred grew as Wayne's star rose and, due to the fact that Mix wouldn't take a pay cut to do radio, his own star began to fall. Asked by a journalist what he thought of Wayne, Mix only replied, "The only Christian words that I could use are 'no-talent upstart'". Wayne, for his part, had disliked Mix since Wayne's college days at USC, when Mix told several members of the football team (Wayne among them) to stop by Fox Studios and he would get them jobs in the movies. Wayne and several others did so a few weeks later, only to be informed that Mix had never told anyone at the studio about his promises of employment, and they were thrown off the lot. Wayne never forgave Mix.
On October 12, 1940, while driving his 1937 Cord Sportsman through the Arizona desert he took a turn too fast, a suitcase broke loose and struck him in the head and his car plunged into a ravine. The ravine was later named "The Tom Mix Wash" in his honor. A plaque at the location reads: "TOM MIX January 6, 1880 - October 12, 1940 Whose spirit left his body on this spot and whose characterization and portrayals in life served to better fix memories of the old west in the minds of living men.".
Profiled in "Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors", Gary Yoggy, ed. (McFarland, 1998).
Rumors that that Mix's radio career never got off the ground after he left films because his voice was high-pitched are not true. His voice, in fact, was deep and husky in tone. Radio was such a low-paying profession that it could not support his high-on-the-hog style of living. He loved sports cars, wild parties and fancy clothes. He owned a huge Hollywood mansion that had his name emblazoned above it in neon lights and had numerous ex-wives to support. Mix instead left films for his true passion, the circus. He became one of its greatest showmen.
Served as a pallbearer at the funeral of legendary western lawman Wyatt Earp in 1929.
There is a Tom Mix museum in Dewey, Oklahoma and another in Mix Run, Pennsylvania.
Tom Mix is mentioned as being a pall bearer and weeping at the funeral for Wyatt Earp at the beginning of the end credits for the 1993 George P. Cosmatos film Tombstone.
Tom Mix reportedly made over $6,000,000 (approaching $400 million in early 21st century, inflation-adjusted values) during his 26-year film career.
Tom's parents were Edwin and Elizabeth Mix. They named him Thomas Hezikiah Mix. When he enlisted in the Army in 1898, he listed his name as Thomas E. Mix (for Edwin).
Was portrayed by Bruce Willis in Sunset (1988).
When an injury caused football player John Wayne to drop out of USC, Tom Mix helped him get a job moving props in the back lot of Fox Studios.
When an injury caused football player John Wayne to drop out of USC, Tom Mix helped him get a job moving props in the back lot of Fox Studios.