Art Mix

Art Mix (born George Washington Kesterson; June 18, 1896 – December 7, 1972), was an American character actor from the 1920s until the mid-1940s. 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. 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. Contract problems led Mix to leave Adamson and begin working for producer J. Charles Davis.Art Mix appeared in over 200 film shorts and feature films. 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. He was even given an occasional leading role, as in the 1935 "B"-western, The Rawhide Terror.Of his more than 90 feature films, some of the more notable include: Sagebrush Trail (1933), starring John Wayne; the 1939 classic Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.; and the Academy Award-winning The Westerner, starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan.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."Mix married the Cuban American actress, Inez Gomez. He died on December 7, 1972, at the age of 76, in Riverside, California. Mix is buried under his stage name in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.