Editing Tim McCoy (section)

===Early career===
In 1922, [[David Townsend (art director)|David Townsend]], president of the Mountain Plains Enterprise Film Company, planned to build "Sunshine Studios" at McCoy's Owl Creek Dude ranch in order to shoot a film titled, "The Dude Wrangler," written by [[Caroline Lockhart]] but the project was abandoned.<ref>''Francis X. Bushman: A Biography and Filmography'', by Richard J. Maturi, Mary Buckingham Maturi McFarland, 1998</ref>
[[File:Portrait from Tim McCoy ad in Motion Picture News (weekly, July 3, 1926 to August 28, 1926) (page 464 crop) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Portrait from Tim McCoy ad in Motion Picture News, 1926]]
That same year, he was asked by the head of [[Famous Players–Lasky]], [[Jesse L. Lasky]], to provide American Indian extras for the Western extravaganza, ''[[The Covered Wagon]]'' (1923). He brought hundreds of Indians to the Utah location and served as a [[technical advisor]] on the film. After filming was completed, McCoy was asked to bring a much smaller group of Indians to Hollywood, for a stage presentation preceding each showing of the film.

McCoy's stage show was popular, running eight months in Hollywood and several more months in London and Paris. McCoy returned to his Wyoming ranch, but [[Irving Thalberg]] of [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] soon signed him to a contract to star in a series of outdoor adventures and McCoy rose to stardom. His first MGM feature was ''[[War Paint (1926 film)|War Paint]] ''(1926), featuring epic scenes of the Wind River Indians on horseback, staged by McCoy and director [[Woody Van Dyke]]. (Footage from ''|War Paint'' was reused in many low-budget Westerns, well into the 1950s.)

''War Paint'' set the tone for future McCoy Westerns, in that Indians were always portrayed sympathetically, and never as bloodthirsty savages. One notable McCoy feature for MGM was ''[[The Law of the Range]]'' (1928), in which he starred with [[Joan Crawford]].
[[File:Gun Code lobby card.jpg|thumb|McCoy on horse in ''Gun Code'', 1940]]
The coming of talking pictures, and the temporary inability to record sound outdoors, resulted in MGM terminating its Tim McCoy series and McCoy returning once more to his ranch. In 1929 he was summoned back to Hollywood personally by [[Carl Laemmle]] of [[Universal Pictures]], who insisted that McCoy star in the first talking Western serial, ''[[The Indians Are Coming]]''. The serial was very successful. Later, in 1932, McCoy starred in ''[[Two Fisted Law]]'' with [[John Wayne]] and [[Walter Brennan]].

McCoy worked steadily in movies until 1936, when he left Hollywood, first to tour with the [[Ringling Brothers Circus]] and then with his own "wild west" show. The show was not a success; it was reported to have lost $300,000, $100,000 of which was McCoy's own money. It folded in Washington, D.C., and the cowboy performers were each given $5 and McCoy's thanks. The Indians on the show were returned to their respective reservations by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

McCoy was available for pictures again in 1938, and low-budget producers (including Maurice Conn and [[Sam Katzman]]) engaged him at his standard salary of $4,000 weekly, for eight films a year. In 1941 [[Buck Jones]] recruited McCoy to co-star in "The Rough Riders" series, alongside Jones and [[Raymond Hatton]]. The eight films, released by [[Monogram Pictures]], were very popular, and might have continued but McCoy declined to renew his contract, opting to pursue other interests.