Buck Jones

Buck Jones was one of the greatest of the "B" western stars. Although born in Indiana, Jones reportedly (but disputedly) grew up on a ranch near Red Rock in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and there learned the riding and shooting skills that would stand him in good stead as a hero of Westerns. He joined the army as a teenager and served on US-Mexican border before seeing service in the Moro uprising in the Philippines. Though wounded, he recuperated and re-enlisted, hoping to become a pilot. He was not accepted for pilot training and left the army in 1913. He took a menial job with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show and soon became champion bronco buster for the show. He moved on to the Julia Allen Show, but with the beginning of the First World War, Jones took work training horses for the Allied armies. After the war, he and his wife, Odelle Osborne, whom he had met in the Miller Brothers show, toured with the Ringling Brothers circus, then settled in Hollywood, where Jones got work in a number of Westerns starring Tom Mix and Franklyn Farnum. Producer William Fox put Jones under contract and promoted him as a new Western star. He used the name Charles Jones at first, then Charles "Buck" Jones, before settling on his permanent stage name. He quickly climbed to the upper ranks of Western stardom, playing a more dignified, less gaudy hero than Mix, if not as austere as William S. Hart. With his famed horse Silver, Jones was one of the most successful and popular actors in the genre, and at one point he was receiving more fan mail than any actor in the world. Months after America's entry into World War II, Jones participated in a war-bond-selling tour.

On his World War I draft registration filed on May 28, 1917, he gave 24 years as his age.

His daughter Maxine Jones was born in 1918; she married actor Noah Beery Jr...

In 1928 he formed his own production company but the stock market crashed the following year and took him for everything. In response, he formed his own 'Wild West' show performing on his white steed Silver. His wife, Odille Osborne, rode her own horse "Bumper" and their 11-year-old daughter Maxine rode her little pony. The tour was also a failure, and he returned to the movies after being off screen for over a year.

He gave permission for his name to be used in a comic book series that was later taken over by the Dell Publishing House. The series ran roughly until 1953 and was a needed source of revenue for his wife Odille.

His mother, Mrs. Eva R. McCammon, died in an Indianapolis nursing home on October 29, 1954. She was 80 years old.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1973.

It's the Buck Jones Daisy Rifle that has the compass and sundial. Not the Red Ryder Daisy Rifle, as shown in A Christmas Story (1983).

Profiled in "Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors", Gary Yoggy, ed. (McFarland, 1998).