officially launched—with the help of Flash.
Gary Cooper deploys his cowboy charm on schoolmarm Mary Brian in 1929’s The Virginian.
the Duke relaxes with Duke, his handsome Ride Him, Cowboy costar.
Rex, “King of the Wild Horses”
Most of the early horse actors found fame as partners of cowboy stars. Not Rex, an amazing black stallion, who became a star in his own right. Billed as Rex the Wonder Horse, this beautiful Morgan had incredible screen presence and a genuine wildness that enthralled audiences.
Foaled in Texas in 1915, Rex was registered as Casey Jones. Reportedly abused as a colt, he was eventually sold to the Colorado Detention Home to be used as a breeding stallion. One day a student took Rex out for a ride and never returned. His body was found near a stream, and it appeared that he had been dragged to death. Perhaps he fell and caught his foot in the stirrup, panicking Rex. Whatever happened, the stallion was branded a killer and sentenced to solitary confinement for two years.
Meanwhile, producer Hal Roach was preparing a new film in 1923, The King of the Wild Horses. He was looking for a fresh black stallion to play the lead and recruited Chick Morrison, who looked after Roach’s polo ponies, to find the star. Morrison and Jack “Swede” Lindell, considered the most gifted horse trainer in Hollywood at the time, scouted prospects in several western states. The men heard about the “killer stallion” at the Detention Home near Golden, Colorado. They decided to take a chance and went to see Rex. Morrison and Lindell were impressed with the stallion’s charisma. They worked with him at the Detention Home for a week and schooled him at liberty, without a bridle or ropes connecting the horse to the trainers. At the end of the week, they staged a demonstration for the astonished wardens. Standing at opposite ends of the town’s Main Street, Morrison and Lindell called Rex back and forth between them, using only their voices and whip cues. The stallion’s talent confirmed, Morrison and Lindell bought Rex for $150 and brought him to Tinseltown, where he was stabled at the barn of Clarence “Fat” Jones, one of the largest suppliers of movie horses.
Rex, the glorious equine matinee idol, displaying the stare that unnerved his human costars and won him millions of fans.
Despite his ability to work at liberty, Rex never became a docile actor. He was famous for quitting when pressed too hard for obedience and once ran 17 miles from the set on a Nevada location. It was this untamed aura that attracted audiences, making it worthwhile for the studios to work with the difficult horse. Rex made his debut in King of the Wild Horses, the film that gave him his nickname, and became an instant hit. Hal Roach Studios quickly capitalized on Rex’s appeal with Black Cyclone (1925) and The Devil Horse (1926). In all these films, he was perfectly typecast as a wild stallion. Hank Potts, a pioneer movie-horse handler, once said there was “an unusual and arresting gleam in Rex’s eyes, like the untamable stare of an eagle.” On one location, Navajo on the film said that Rex had a devil imprisoned in him. Some even wore amulets against his “evil eye.”
Oddly, Rex was infuriated by spitting, perhaps as a result of being so taunted at the Detention Home. Whatever the origin of this bizarre quirk, Lindell exploited it to incite the horse’s on-screen wrath. Standing just off camera, Lindell only had to spit, and Rex would charge forward, eyes wild and teeth bared.
The black stallion Rex strikes a regal pose in his debut film, The King of the Wild Horses (1924). In his best penmanship, Rex has inscribed this photo to early cinematographer and special- effects man Ernie Crockett.
Since most actors refused to work with Rex, his double, a quiet gelding named Brownie, was used in close-up scenes. Only the fearless former rodeo star, actor, and topnotch stuntman Yakima Canutt would work “up close and personal” with the stallion. Canutt costarred with Rex in The Devil Horse and had a close encounter with his wild side. In one scene, Rex had to run to Canutt’s character during an Indian battle. He had performed the liberty work beautifully for several takes, but Canutt noticed he was getting mad. He warned the director, Fred Jackman, that the horse needed a break. Jackman pressed for one more take—and Rex snapped. He charged Canutt, baring his teeth. “I tried to duck,” Canutt remembered in his autobiography, “but his upper teeth hit my left jaw and his lower teeth got my neck. I was knocked to the ground, and he reared above me, striking down with his powerful front hooves.” Canutt managed to roll away and kicked Rex on the nose. Still the horse came after him even when Lindell tried to call him off. “I finally rolled over a bank and escaped,” wrote Canutt.
Rex’s frequent costar was a pinto stallion, Marky. Sometimes he was used as a shill, to incite Rex to fury with an off-screen whinny. Marky had some hair-raising on-screen tussles with Rex, carefully orchestrated by Lindell, who made sure neither stallion was injured no matter how vicious the fight appeared. Their hooves were shod in soft rubber shoes to soften kicks, and their teeth were wrapped in gauze to prevent serious bites. Fake blood added to the realism of the fight scenes, which were acted for keeps by both stallions.
Behind the back of an oblivious Native American chief, Rex’s nemesis, the pinto Marky, menaces his off-screen rival in The Devil Horse (1926).
In early 1927, Rex was sold to Universal Pictures. There he continued his career, appearing in several films with Jack Perrin, an appealing cowboy actor. One such film was Guardians of the Wild, released in 1928. Perrin plays Jerry, a forest ranger who talks to his gorgeous light gray mare, Starlight, the actor’s frequent costar. As bright as she is beautiful, Starlight, of course, understands every word. Playing a sympathetic character for a change, Rex is depicted as smarter than Jerry and expends a considerable amount of energy trying to communicate with him.
Critics loved Rex, as is obvious in this 1928 review of Guardians of the Wild from Photoplay magazine: “Rex, the ‘Wonder Horse,’ is the star; but you see little of him. He’s buried under a pile of screaming heroine, half-witted hero, wronged father, and leering villain. Too bad a horse can’t choose his own stories!”
In another of Rex’s films, Wild Beauty (1927), the stallion costars with a French Thoroughbred mare named Valerie. The film features Rex at his wildest, killing a mountain lion, battling cowhands who have roped him, tearing into a rival stallion with a vengeance, and galloping at breakneck speed to accomplish his varied goals in the film. His performance is truly stunning.
Rex never outgrew his wildness. In fact, during the filming of Smoky in 1933, he charged an actor and knocked him to the ground, as scripted. What followed was pure improvisation by Rex, who began tearing the man’s clothes off with his teeth. The director cut the frightening scene from the film.
Rex is credited in nineteen films, but he played anonymously in countless others as an incorrigible stallion. His career continued into the talkies era, and in 1935 at age twenty, he costarred with the German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin Jr. in a twelve-part Mascot serial, The Adventures of Rex and Rinty. Rex made his final film in the late 1930s. He eventually retired to the ranch of Lee Doyle in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he was turned out with a band of mares. Although Rex sired a number of foals, none became a movie star. Truly one of a kind, Rex passed away sometime in the early 1940s.
