Born in Indiana, Charles "Buck" Jones
was raised in Montana, where he trained himself to be an expert
rider and roper. After serving in the US Cavalry, he joined
the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show as a trick rider
and later performed with the Ringling Brothers circus. He entered
films as a stunt double in 1917 and was promoted to his own
starring series at Fox Studios two years later. Appearing onscreen
with his horse Silver, Jones quickly became one of the most
popular western stars of the 1920s.
When westerns went into a brief eclipse in the early talkie era, Jones was "demoted" to
low-budget Columbia Pictures, where he continued appearing in high-grossing horse
operas and occasional "straight" dramatic films until 1936. He then
spent a few seasons at Universal as star producer and occasional director. At
the peak of his popularity in the 1930s, when his Buck Jones Rangers club boasted
five million youthful members, he was reportedly receiving more fan mail than
Clark Gable.
When his career began slipping again in 1940, he signed with Monogram,
where he costarred with Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton in the money making "Rough
Riders" series.
On November 30, 1942, Jones was guest of honor at a party given by his producer/manager
Scott R. Dunlap at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston when a fire broke out
in the kitchen. According to some reports, Jones attempted to escape along with
all the others when the fire spread to the main room; other sources claim that
he valiantly insisted upon re-entering the blazing inferno to rescue the guests
still trapped inside. Whatever the circumstances, the end result was the same:
Jones perished in the Cocoanut Grove fire along with nearly five hundred others.
Married to the same woman for 27 years, Buck Jones was the father of a daughter
named Maxine, (who married actor Noah Beery Jr.).
