News about Tom Mix

QUESTION: Did any real-life cowboys get to see themselves portrayed on film? The Wild West era, known for cowboys and indians, outlaws, gold prospectors and gunslingers, lasted roughly from the 1860s to the 1890s. It therefore coincided with the early days of film. Wyatt Earp, the famous lawman, gambler and gunfighter, was known primarily for his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881. Earp moved to Hollywood in the early 1900s, staying until his death in 1929. Earp befriended several individuals who would become major figures in Hollywood. Among them were the director John Ford and William S. Hart, one of the most famous silent film actors and Western stars of the time. Earp also knew Tom Mix, a leading cowboy actor known for his Western films. Both Hart and Mix were pallbearers at Earp's funeral. Earp served as an unofficial adviser and consultant to filmmakers working on Westerns. When Hart wrote and produced the seven-reel epic Wild Bill Hickok, released by Paramount in 1923, it featured Bert Lindley as Wyatt Earp. Allan Dwan stated in his autobiography that Earp appeared as an extra in Dwan's 1916 film The Half-Breed.