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Art Mix

{{Short description|American actor (1896–1972)}}

{{missing information|the actor's early life, career, later years, death, and legacy|date=February 2019}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Art Mix

| image = ArtMixinAceofCactusRange.jpg

| caption = Screen shot of Mix from the 1924 silent film, Ace of the Cactus Range.

| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|6|18}}

| birth_place = Pike County, Illinois, United States

| death_date = {{death date and age|1972|12|7|1896|6|18}}

| death_place = Riverside, California, United States

| birthname = George Washington Kesterson

| occupation = Actor

| spouse =

| yearsactive = 1924–46

}}

Art Mix (born George Washington Kesterson; June 18, 1896 – December 7, 1972), was an American character actor from the 1920s until the mid-1940s.

Biography

Prior to becoming an actor, Mix worked as a circus performer and a boxer. He initially appeared under his real name, Kesterson, before being given his stage name by Victor Adamson.{{cite web | url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/art-mix-p49759 | publisher=AllMovie | title=Art Mix: Detail View | last=Wollstein | first=Hans J. | accessdate=July 17, 2015}} Adamson calculated that a cowboy named "Art Mix" would be associated somehow with western superstar Tom Mix, and that small-town exhibitors who could not afford Tom Mix's expensive films would be likely to use cheaper films marketed with the lesser "Art Mix" brand name.{{Citation needed |date=June 2021}} Contract problems led Mix to leave Adamson and begin working for producer J. Charles Davis.{{cite news |last1=Katchmer |first1=George A. |title=Forgotten cowboys and cowgirls |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79323301/the-muscatine-journal/ |access-date=June 10, 2021 |work=The Muscatine Journal |date=April 30, 1981 |page=74|via = Newspapers.com}}

Art Mix appeared in over 200 film shorts and feature films.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594283/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2 | publisher=Internet Movie Database | title=Art Mix | accessdate=July 15, 2015}} Although most of his roles were in smaller and bit parts, he would sometimes be cast in a featured role, such as in 1932's Border Devils, starring Harry Carey.{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=876 | title=Border Devils: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | accessdate=July 17, 2015}} He was even given an occasional leading role, as in the 1935 "B"-western, The Rawhide Terror.{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=7888 | title=The Rawhide Terror: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | accessdate=July 17, 2015}}

Of his more than 90 feature films, some of the more notable include: Sagebrush Trail (1933), starring John Wayne;{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=5508 | title=Sagebrush Trail: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | accessdate=July 17, 2015}} the 1939 classic Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.;{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=5125 | title=Gunga Din: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | accessdate=July 17, 2015}} and the Academy Award-winning The Westerner, starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan.{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=5134 | title=The Westerner: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | accessdate=July 17, 2015}}

In 1929, Art Mix won a lawsuit over the use of his professional name. The films' producer, Victor Adamson, tried to keep his Art Mix series going while actor Kesterson was working for producer J. Charles Davis. Adamson went before the camera himself, as Art Mix. A judge granted an injunction restraining Adamson (then using the screen name Denver Dixon) from using the name Art Mix "until one year after the release date of Kesterson's last picture of a series being made under contract with the J. Charles Davis Productions."{{cite news |title=Court Finds for Art Mix in Name Mix |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24830211/art_mix/ |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=December 4, 1929 |location=California, Los Angeles |page=35|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = October 25, 2018}} {{Open access}}

Mix married the Cuban American actress, Inez Gomez. He died on December 7, 1972, at the age of 76, in Riverside, California.

Filmography

(Per AFI database){{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=&Type=PN&Tbl=&CatID=DATABIN_CAST&ID=15655&searchedFor=Art_Mix_&SortType=ASC&SortCol=RELEASE_YEAR | publisher=American Film Institute | title=Art Mix: Detail View | accessdate=July 17, 2015}}{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=&retailCheck=&Type=PN&CatID=DATABIN_CAST&ID=409718&AN_ID=&searchedFor=Art_Mix_ | publisher=American Film Institute | title=Art Mix: Detail View | accessdate=July 17, 2015}}{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=&retailCheck=&Type=PN&CatID=DATABIN_CAST&ID=16109&AN_ID=&searchedFor=Arthur_Mix_ | publisher=American Film Institute | title=Arthur Mix: Detail View | accessdate=July 17, 2015}}

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References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{commons category|Art Mix}}

  • {{IMDb name|0594283}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mix, Art}}

Category:1896 births

Category:1972 deaths

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American male silent film actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:Male actors from Illinois