Tom Tyler (August 9 1903 - May 1 1954) was an American actor in silent and sound motion pictures.
He was born Vincent Markowski, into a Polish-American family.
Tyler had a long career in film, stretching from the 1920s to the 1950s, and appeared in many films, most of them westerns such as John Ford's Stagecoach and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. He occasionally took "civilian" roles in feature films (he's the boxing referee in Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates), but the biggest part of Tyler's screen career was spent making low-budget B-movie westerns for modest salaries. Most of his budget westerns were made by Reliable Pictures for producers Bernard B. Ray and Harry S. Webb.
Larger studios cast the athletic Tyler in rugged roles. In 1940, he was the Mummy in The Mummy's Hand. In the first film adaptation of a comic-strip superhero, Tyler had the title role in the 1941 film serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel, and starred as one of The Three Mesquiteers in Republic's series of western features.
In 1943, he starred in The Phantom, based on Lee Falk's famous comic strip. Tyler personified the role, looking especially striking in the character's familiar costume, and much of the serial's great success was due to Tyler himself. It was Tom Tyler's last major screen role. Columbia Pictures intended to make a sequel to The Phantom for years, but by the time they finally started shooting in 1955, Tyler had died. The story was hastily rewritten as The Adventures of Captain Africa, starring John Hart, although footage of Tom Tyler's Phantom does appear in some of the long shots.
Tyler was beset by rheumatoid arthritis in the later part of his career, and was limited to occasional supporting roles. Nearly destitute, he returned to live with his sister in the Detroit area, dying there of heart failure at the age of 50 in 1954.
Popular American star of silent and early sound Westerns and serials. Raised in Michigan, he went through a number of strenuous jobs (sailor, boxer lumberjack, coal miner, etc.) before landing in Los Angeles and getting work as a movie extra and stuntman. His good looks and athletic physique (he was a champion weight-lifter) led to an offer to play the lead in a series of silent Westerns, which he filmed under the stage name Bill Burns. In 1925, FBO signed him and changed his name to Tom Tyler. He became one of the studio's most popular action stars and initially made a smooth transition into talking pictures, for which he worked hard to lose his natural Lithuanian accent. As the Thirties progressed, however, he began to face stiff competition in the arena of B-Westerns and started taking supporting roles in larger budget pictures such as Stagecoach (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1941, he took on perhaps his most famous role as the eponymous hero of Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). This serial and several others brought him new fame, but within three years of playing Captain Marvel, Tyler's career was almost erased when his health failed. Rheumatoid arthritis crippled him and he was reduced to occasional minor supporting roles, often for John Ford (I), for whom he had worked in a number of films prior to his illness . Nearly destitute, he returned to live with his sister in the Detroit area and died there of heart failure at the age of 50 in 1954.
