Blackjack Ward
American cowboy and Western actor (1891-1954)
Jerome Bonaparte "Blackjack" Ward was an American cowboy and Western actor who appeared in over 160 films from 1927 to 1946.
Professional career
Ward was born in Franklin, Louisiana on May 3, 1891, but found his way to Hollywood during the height of the making of the black and white westerns appearing in over 160 such films as mostly an uncredited bit and background actor. He was credited in The Ghost Rider (1935) as "Henchman Chalky", in Texas Stampede (1939) as "Ave Avery", in Rainbow Riders (1934) as "Texarkana Pete a.k.a. The Candy Kid", and in Lighting Bill (1934) as "Red - Ranchhand". He appeared in 42 films during the years of 1931 and 1932 alone.
Homicide allegations
In February 1940, Ward became involved in a homicide on Sunset Boulevard at Gower Gulch, near Columbia Pictures studios when he shot and killed stuntman and background actor Johnny Tyke. This event occurred after an altercation in which Ward claimed that Tyke had been threatening him for months after getting out of prison. According to Ward, he had run into Tyke at the corner drugstore and Tyke started to call him names and threatening to beat him to death. Ward walked away to get his gun in his car but Tyke was standing nearby the car, so Ward shot through the windshield. As Tyke ran across the parking lot to escape, Ward ran after him and shot him.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15998597. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 1946, 1891 and 1935.
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This entry incorporates text from “Blackjack Ward” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.