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Above, Jim Newill and his trusty hoss Alamo during their work at PRC in the Texas Rangers trio series. Above, the title lobby card for the first Texas Rangers film, THE RANGERS TAKE OVER, which was released in December, 1942.  Note the cleft on Newill's chin as well as the name change --- he was billed 'James' in the Renfrew flicks but he's now 'Jim'.  Also note that Dave O'Brien gets first billing, a reversal of their Renfrew days when O'Brien was Newill's helper and well down in the cast listing. Above from L-to-R are Dave O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson and Newill in a lobby card from THE RANGERS TAKE OVER (PRC, 1942).

After Renfrew, Newill must have done some other work as he had only a couple small movie roles.

Roughly 2 1/2 years after his last mountie yarn, Newill got hired for a new western trio series being developed by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC).  The other two members were screen veteran Dave 'Tex' O'Brien and stringbean comedian Guy Wilkerson.  It was probably easy for Newill and O'Brien to reunite.  The series was the Texas Rangers, and Newill appeared in fourteen before being displaced by Tex Ritter, who headlined the final eight.  O'Brien and Wilkerson were around for the entire 22 film run.

As background, Republic Pictures had introduced the Three Mesquiteers in 1936 and the series proved to be popular and financially successful.  Monogram brought out the Range Busters in 1940, and the Rough Riders premiered in 1941.  PRC had failed in their first attempt at a series with three heroes --- their 'Frontier Marshals' starred Bill 'Cowboy Rambler' Boyd, Art Davis and Lee 'Lone Ranger' Powell, and 6 mediocre sagebrushers were released in 1942 and the series was dropped.  Their second trio effort, the Texas Rangers, lasted a lot longer, but still suffered from PRC's slapdash production values and miniscule budgets.

Why was Newill chosen for the series?  No rock solid answers on this.  Hiring Newill may have been suggested by O'Brien.  Or a recommendation could have come from PRC directors Al Herman, Elmer Clifton or Sam Newfield, all of whom had helmed one or more of the Renfrews.  Initially, Alfred Stern and Arthur Alexander co-produced the Rangers, but by the 7th title, they were alternating as producer.  You'll read a bit more about Arthur Alexander (and his brother Max) in a later section on the Newill's Renfrew TV series.

Of Newill's 14 oaters, there are several pleasant surprises.  THE RANGERS TAKE OVER (PRC, 1942) is the series intro with Steele (Newill) helping out new lawman Tex Wyatt (Dave O'Brien).  It's also worthwhile because the leading lady is luverly Iris Meredith, a frequent heroine in Columbia oaters and serials.  TRAIL OF TERROR (PRC, 1943) has O'Brien doing dual roles as his ranger self and his evil twin.  And SPOOK TOWN (PRC, 1944) featured a ghost town setting and a storyline about water and building a dam.

Newill's last Texas Rangers film --- and last movie role --- was BRAND OF THE DEVIL (PRC, 1944).  PRC filled the Newill vacancy with Tex Ritter.

(Pressbook cover courtesy of Les Adams)

Arthur Alexander was the solo producer on this one.

Newill's Hollywood career lasted less than 10 years, and he starred in 22 B grade films --- 8 Renfrews and 14 Texas Rangers.  He had a good baritone singing voice which fit somewhere between the booming opera style of Dick Foran, George Houston and Fred Scott and the more comfortable western crooning of Rogers, Autry, Ritter, Allen, Wakely and Dean.

The Motion Picture Herald and Boxoffice polls were conducted from about the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s.  With a few exceptions, the annual results would list the 'Top Ten' (or 'Top Five') cowboy film stars.  In most cases, the winners were what you would expect --- Autry, Rogers, Holt, Starrett, Hoppy, etc.  James Newill never achieved a top ten ranking in these polls.  Only a few of PRC's western stars ever attained a ranking in those polls --- Tex Ritter made the list in 1944 and '45 while in the Texas Rangers and Eddie Dean did it in 1946 and '47.

Newill's 22 starring films, as well as his few other film appearances, couldn't have put a whole bunch of money in his wallet and bank account.  What about his career and life during the breaks between the Renfrew films ... the several years between Renfrew and the Texas Rangers ... and what did he do in the 30+ years after he exited Hollywood?  Newill's primary income over the years had to come from other sources.  Perhaps we'll be able to discover more about this singin' cowboy.

James Newill passed away from cancer on July 31, 1975.

Go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral, and then click the link for the California Death Records database and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).  You'll find a record for James M. Newill, birthdate and location of 8/12/1911 and Pennsylvania, and he passed away on 7/31/1975.

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Kenne Duncan, Newill and Reed Howes in a scene from BORDER BUCKAROOS (PRC, 1943).

On the left is a blowup of Newill's well decorated gunbelt (which housed a pearl-handled sixgun) from the above BORDER BUCKAROOS photo. He also wore what I call 'Bob Livingston pants' (see photo above) in remembrance of Livingston's drawers from many of his Three Mesquiteers films --- both Livingston and Newill had 'hero britches' with a lighter colored cuff.

"He appeared on Broadway in 1944 in the musical version of RAIN called SADIE THOMPSON, and in the early 1950s he did a 10" LP for Decca records, "The Lord is My Shepherd".  "The Lord is My Shepherd" was originally recorded August 19-20, 1941, about a decade before the LP was released. The eight songs he did were originally issued in two separate series of 78s:

18243 / 28004 The 23rd Psalm/The Lord's Prayer
18244 / 28005 The Rosary/Ave Maria
18245 / 28006 Goin' Home/The Lost Chord
18246 / 28007 Beautiful Isle of Somewhere/Abide With Me

John Brooker wrote an article about Newill in a 1972 issue of Film Collectors Registry and it contains a few quotes. The writeup notes that Newill asked to leave the PRC series in order to do the Broadway show SADIE THOMPSON. There is also mention of his wife (not named) doing movies in Europe in which he maybe appeared, but it's vague.

The AFI Catalog 1931-40 to the contrary, I believe the Jimmy Newell who appeared in Grand National's SING WHILE YOU'RE ABLE in 1937 is the same person as Jim Newill.  I have a couple of vocals by Jimmy Newell from 1933 with Abe Lyman's Orchestra and it sounds like Jim Newill to me.  As Newill he was in SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT, also for Grand National in 1937.  I also found a radio show for a Jimmy NEWALL called "Love and a Story" but there was no broadcast date mentioned.

Newill also appeared in a dozen of the Snader Telescription musical shorts (billed as James Newell), and these are mentioned in the Soundies book from McFarland. These were made circa 1950-1952 and were 3+ minutes in length. Snader sold these to TV stations where they were broadcast individually or several were strung together to provide 'filler' for a time slot."

"RENFREW OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED with Newill was syndicated in '53 (carrying a '52 copyright date). It was produced by Max and Arthur Alexander Productions. The episode I have, GET YOUR MAN, begins with the standard movie song, "Mounted Men", and is edited from the first movie in 1937 with a new wrap-around added of James Newill telling a kid named Dickie a story. Newill appears to have aged quite well. My TV film source book for 1966 says 73 films were available. Since there are only eight movies, I don't know how they could have produced that many TV shows unless some completely new episodes were done. You can't edit 73 half hours out of eight movies. We may never know the answer to this one. There was also a Renfrew TV pilot made starring Arthur Franz. Didn't sell."

"Prior to Jack Ingram owning the land, it was purchased by two other movie cowboys as a scheme to avoid being drafted by the Army during World War II. The land was also once part of the Charlie Chaplin estate. Apparently, Jim Newill and Dave O'Brien heard about some provision by the government that provided deferment to those owning ranches and raising animals. They decided to buy the land and raise goats. They did not have the property long, until they were called for physicals --- both were classified 4-F. They immediately started looking for a buyer, and sold the ranch to Jack Ingram (in 1944), who had worked with Newill and O'Brien in some of their Texas Rangers features at PRC. Ingram, in an economy move, bought an old bulldozer and enlisted the help of several other movie badman friends to clear the site."

James Newill Filmography Special thanks to Les Adams for providing this filmography

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Jim Newill.  Click HERE.

You'll find a bit of info (as well as a book cover) on the Renfrew novels by Laurie York Erskine at: http://www.seriesbooks.com/renfrew.htm

You'll find a bit more about the Renfrew radio adventures at: http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=5501&si=126

And don't forget to visit the Texas Rangers section on the Old Corral to learn more about PRC's low budget copy of Republic's Three Mesquiteers.

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