Al Hoxie on AllMovie

The younger half-brother of silent Western star Jack Hoxie, Al Hoxie followed his already then well-known sibling to Hollywood in 1920, acting in numerous bit roles and stunt doubling for the likes of Ruth Roland (in Ruth of the Rockies, 1920) and Betty Blythe (in the spectacular Queen of Sheba, 1921), all under his real name of Alton Stone. After briefly supporting brother Jack at Universal, he changed his billing to Al Hoxie and signed to star in a series of low-budget Westerns produced by Morris R. Schlank. Although produced on a shoestring budget and despite lackluster direction from J.P. McGowan (who, to Hoxie's chagrin, had replaced Francis Ford), the series proved popular and Al went on to star for both Bud Barsky and William Pizor, Gower Gulch entrepreneurs whose low-budget Westerns were geared for the poorest of the neighborhood houses. A scene from one of the Pizor Westerns somehow ended up in White Outlaw (1929), an Art Acord vehicle, and to his utter amazement, Hoxie suddenly found himself billed as "Art Hoxie"! There would be a couple of very low-budget Western featurettes in 1934, but Al Hoxie effectively left Hollywood at the advent of sound. After working for a lumber company in Oregon, the veteran cowboy joined the Anaheim, CA, police department in 1944 and later functioned as chief security officer at California's Patton State Hospital. Shortly before retiring in 1968, Hoxie, in a highly publicized event, managed to single-handedly disarm a threatening former inmate. For this bit of real-life bravery, the veteran silent cowboy was awarded the California Medal of Valor by then-governor Ronald Reagan.