On January 6, 1880, actor Tom Mix is born. Born in Pennsylvania, Mix would grow up learning to ride horses. He would work various odd jobs, including a stint as the Marshal of Dewey, Oklahoma. Mix eventually made his film debut with the short film The Cowboy Millionaire while working as a supporting cast member for the Selig Polyscope Company in 1909. Over the next ~26 years Mix would star in approximately 300+ movies before retiring from his time as a film star in 1935 with the release of his final film serial [i]The Miracle Rider[i]. Though he continued to perform with his own traveling circus; however, success was limited as the Great Depression was in full swing and his circus was unable to generate enough revenue to be profitable. Tom Mix passed away on October 12, 1940, in a tragic car accident near Florence, Arizona.

Tom Mix was known as the "King of the Cowboys" at the height of his career and helped define the Western genre before such figures as John Wayne or Clint Eastwood came to symbolize the Western over the following decades. He is memorialized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a place in the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There is also a Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma.