Popular actor Tom Mix was a veteran of the screen by the time John Wayne's first appearance in front of the camera, debuting in a short for Selig Polyscope's 1909 "The Cowboy Millionaire.'" By the time he was in October 1926's "The Great K & A Train Robbery," Mix was Hollywood's top Western actor, pulling in well over $7,500 per week. Wearing his trademark wide-brimmed white hat and wearing flashy clothes, Mix performed all his physical stunts. He's first seen in "The Great K & A Robbery" dangling high above the Colorado River eavesdropping on a conversation between two baddies on the edge of a cliff. Once Mix gets the lowdown on what those two desperados are up to, he proceeds to get on his trusty horse, 'Tony the Wonder Horse,' a celebrity in his own right, to chase after a speeding train with Madge Cullen (Dorothy Dwan), on board. She's the object of a kidnapping scheme by the gang looking to cash in on a big ransom payback.
Based on a Paul Leicester Ford 1896 novel, "The Great K & A Robbery," the film sees Mix as a detective investigating a series of robberies on the K & A Railroad. He discovers the president of the rail company's secretary is an insider working in cahoots with the bandits responsible for holding up his employer's trains. All the exterior action takes place in the rugged terrain of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where scores of that town's citizenship came out to watch Mix perform his daredevil feats before the camera.
By the time the silent film era ended, Mix had been in 282 movies. His transition to sound was not quite as successful, since, because of a previous accident where a bullet entered his throat, as well as several broken noses over the years from stunt work, Mix's voice didn't have that strength of authority required for a macho cowboy he had been portraying all those years. He did make nine films for Universal Pictures when talkies entered the pictures. But his extravagant spending and a purchase of a circus which his daughter ran into the ground, resulted his finances being squandered away. In 1940, while driving to visit a sheriff in Tucson, Arizona, Mix swerved to avoid construction barriers marking a washed out bridge. A heavy suitcase in the backseat hit him square in the back of his head as his car overturned in a gully, breaking his neck. He was instantly killed at the age of 60.
