Ruth Mix
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Ruth Mix | |
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![]() Mix at right in still from That Girl Oklahoma (1926) | |
Born | |
Died | September 21, 1977 | (aged 65)
Occupation | Film actress |
Spouse(s) | Douglas Gilmore
(m. 1930; annulled 1932)Harry Knight (m. 1935) |
Parents |
|
Nadine Ruth Mix[1] or Ruth Jane Mix[2] (July 13, 1912 – September 21, 1977) was an actress.
Early years[]
Mix was born in Dewey, Oklahoma,[citation needed] to Tom and Olive Stokes Mix.[3] She had a half-sister, Thomasina Mix.[4][5]
After they divorced, when Mix was 15, her mother asked a Los Angeles court to order that the girl's allowance be increased from $50 per month to $1,500 per month. The judge denied the request until someone was appointed guardian of her estate and said she would have to become a "boarding pupil" rather than a "day school pupil".[3] By January 1929, her monthly allowance had been increased to $225, but her spending led a judge to chastise her when a debt-collection agency attached an allowance check after she ran up a $1,000 hotel bill in New York. The judge admonished her to "try to be more modest about her ways of living."[2] The monthly allocation ended via another court ruling in 1930 after she married.[6]
Career[]
Mix started her acting career following in her father's footsteps. In the mid-1920s she starred in several silent films. She made a total of twelve westerns, particularly The Tonto Kid, Fighting Pioneers, Saddle Aces and Gunfire, all made in 1935. In 1936 she starred in three cliffhanger serials, , The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand, and Custer's Last Stand. She played the female lead in a few B-westerns, starring alongside Wally Walls and Hoot Gibson.
Mix retired from acting, becoming a roping artist and trick rider for her father's circus and wild west show.[7] In 1929, she performed in vaudeville, performing "in a novelty offering including singing and dancing"[8] and heading a Rodeo Revue show.[9] The Rodeo Revue had a cast of 35, featuring comedian Jed Dooley and including Toby Tobias and his orchestra and an eight-woman ballet group in addition to Mix and her horse, Lindy.[10]
Her father's show went bankrupt by the end of the 1930s, during the Great Depression.[citation needed] In 1939, she was part of the Wild West Show at the New York World's Fair,[11] and in 1941 she, along with Howard Cragg and B. H. Jones, headed a rodeo show that appeared at fairs.[12]
Personal life[]
On June 9, 1930, Mix married actor Douglas Gilmore in Yuma, Arizona. They separated in July 1931, with Mix planning to go to court to seek an annulment.[13] The annulment was granted in July 1932, to become effective automatically 90 days later.[1] Mix and Harry Knight, a "champion Canadian bronco buster" eloped to Reno, Nevada, and were married on June 5, 1935.[14]
Death[]
On September 21, 1977, Mix died in Corpus Christi, Texas, aged 65. Her name then was Ruth Hill, and she had lived in Corpus Christi since 1954.[7]
Filmography[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1926 | That Girl Oklahoma | ||
1926 | Tex | ||
1927 | The Little Boss | ||
1928 | Four Sons | Johann's Girl | Uncredited |
1931 | Red Fork Range | Ruth Farell | |
1934 | The Tonto Kid | Nancy Cahill | |
1934 | Gunfire | Mary Vance | |
1935 | Fighting Pioneers | Wa-No-Na | |
1935 | Saddle Aces | Jane Langton | |
1936 | Custer's Last Stand | Elizabeth Custer | Serial, [Chs. 1,3, 8-11,15] |
1936 | The Clutching Hand | Shirley McMillan | Serial |
1936 | The Riding Avenger | Chita Ringer | |
1936 | The Black Coin | Dorothy Dale | (final film role) |
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Tom Mix's daughter free". The New York Times. July 8, 1932. p. 22. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Judge cautions Ruth Mix". The New York Times. Associated Press. January 6, 1929. p. 33. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Denies Ruth Mix's plea". The New York Times. Associated Press. February 3, 1928. p. 10. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ "Tom Mix's Daughter to Wed". The New York Times. Associated Press. February 21, 1940. p. 22. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ Tuska, Jon (1 October 1999). The Vanishing Legion: A History of Mascot Pictures, 1927-1935. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0749-1. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
- ^ "Mix wins allowance suit". The New York Times. Associated Press. July 5, 1930. p. 24. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Daughter of Tom Mix Dies". The New York Times. Associated Press. p. 28. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ "Sharp Stock Offers Play Never Seen Here". The Pittsburgh Press. May 12, 1929. p. 84. Retrieved August 22, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Vaudeville". The New York Times. June 30, 1929. p. X 1. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ "Ruth Mix and Horse 'Lindy' Star in Revue". The Minneapolis Star. October 19, 1929. p. 34. Retrieved August 22, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Taylor, Stephen (2006). Fats Waller on the Air: The Radio Broadcasts and Discography. Scarecrow Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-8108-5656-1. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
- ^ "Fair Program". Valley Morning Star. Texas, Harlingen. November 26, 1941. p. 1. Retrieved August 22, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Confirms Gilmore rift". The New York Times. Associated Press. July 10, 1931. p. 4. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
- ^ "Tom Mix's Daughter Elopes". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 6, 1935. p. 2. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ruth Mix. |
- People from Dewey, Oklahoma
- Actresses from Oklahoma
- American silent film actresses
- American film actresses
- 1912 births
- 1977 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- Vaudeville performers
- American film actor, 1910s birth stubs