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Rex Allen, born December 31, 1920 - died December
17, 1999, was an United States|American actor,
singer, and songwriter.


Born Rex Elvie Allen on a ranch in Mud Springs
Canyon, forty miles from Willcox, Arizona, Rex
Allen would grow up to become a popular
entertainer known as "The Arizona Cowboy." As a
boy he played guitar and sang at local functions
with his fiddle-playing father until high school
graduation when he toured the southwest as a rodeo
rider. He got his start in show business on the
East Coast as a vaudeville singer then found work
in Chicago as a performer on the WLS (AM)|WLS
Radio program, National Barn Dance. In 1948 he
signed with Mercury Records where he recorded a
number of successful country music albums until
1952 when he switched to the Decca Records|Decca
label where he would continue making records into
the 1970s. 

When singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Gene
Autry were very much in vogue in American film, in
1949 Republic Pictures in Hollywood gave him a
screen test and put him under contract. Beginning
in 1950, Allen starred as himself in nineteen of
Hollywood's western movies. One of the top-ten box
office draws of the day, whose character was soon
depicted in comic books, on screen Allen
personified the clean cut, God-fearing American
hero of the wild west who wore a white Stetson,
loved his faithful horse named "Koko" and had a
loyal buddy who shared his adventures. Allen's
comic relief sidekick in first few pictures was
Buddy Ebsen and then character actor, Slim
Pickens.

Over his career, Rex Allen wrote and recorded many
songs, a number of which were featured in his own
films. Late in coming to the industry, his film
career was relatively short as the popularity of
westerns faded by the mid 1950s. He has the
distinction of making the last singing western in
1954. As other cowboy stars made the transition to
television, Allen tried too, cast as Dr. Bill
Baxter for a half-hour weekly series called
Frontier Doctor. Allen was gifted with a rich,
pleasant voice, ideally suited for narration and
was able to find considerable work as a narrator
in a variety of films especially for Walt Disney
Pictures wildlife films and TV shows. He also was
the voice of the father on Disney's Carousel of
Progress , which was presented at the 1964 World's
Fair and is now at Walt Disney World .
 
For his contribution to the motion picture
industry, Rex Allen was given a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Blvd. In
1983, he was inducted into the Western Performers
Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western
Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1989 his life story was told in the book Rex
Allen: "My Life" Sunrise to Sunset - The Arizona
Cowboy written by Paula Simpson-Witt and Snuff
Garrett.

Rex Allen died in 1999 in Tucson, Arizona from
injuries received when his caretaker accidentally
ran over him in the driveway of his home.
Cremated, his ashes were scattered near the Rex
Allen Museum in Willcox, Arizona where most of his
memorabilia is on display.

His son, Rex Allen Jr. was also a successful
singer, with several country hits in the 1970s.

See also: Notable figures in Western films|Other
notable figures in Western films

==External links==
*voice actor|id=2451|name=Rex Allen
*imdb name|id=0020942|name=Rex Allen