Buck Jones was a renowned "B" western star, born in Indiana, but reportedly grew up on a ranch near Red Rock in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, where he developed his riding and shooting skills that would serve him well as a hero in Westerns.
As a teenager, Jones joined the army and served on the US-Mexican border before participating in the Moro uprising in the Philippines, where he was wounded. Despite his injuries, he recuperated and re-enlisted, hoping to become a pilot, but was not accepted for pilot training and left the army in 1913.
Jones then took a menial job with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show and soon became the champion bronco buster for the show. He later joined the Julia Allen Show, but with the outbreak of World War I, Jones took work training horses for the Allied armies.
After the war, Jones and his wife, Odelle Osborne, whom he had met in the Miller Brothers show, toured with the Ringling Brothers circus before settling in Hollywood, where Jones landed 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, initially using the name Charles Jones, then Charles "Buck" Jones, before settling on his permanent stage name. Jones quickly rose to the upper ranks of Western stardom, playing a more dignified and less gaudy hero than Mix, if not as austere as William S. Hart.
With his famous horse Silver, Jones became one of the most successful and popular actors in the genre, receiving more fan mail than any actor in the world at one point. In the months following America's entry into World War II, Jones participated in a war-bond-selling tour.
On November 28, 1942, Jones was a guest at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston when a fire broke out, resulting in one of the worst fire disasters on record. Jones was horribly burned and died two days later before his wife Dell could arrive to comfort him.
Although it is often claimed that Jones died trying to rescue others from the fire, the actual evidence suggests that he was trapped with all the others and succumbed to the flames as most people did, trying to escape. Nevertheless, Jones remains a hero to thousands who followed his film adventures.
