Charles King

Biography

Albany, New York, greeted the arrival of Charles King on 12 October 1844, and from that Hudson River cradle he would spin two careers—soldier-novelist and screen performer—into a single vivid legend. Between hardtack campaigns on the western frontier, he sharpened his pen on frontier life, producing dozens of cavalry tales that Hollywood later galloped toward. In 1925 alone, three of his novels—A Daughter of the Sioux, Tonio, Son of the Sierras, and Warrior Gap—leapt onto the silver screen, carrying his name into flickering nickelodeons from Arizona to Berlin. Off-camera, he shared a long marriage with Adelaide Yorke, the woman who steadied the retired brigadier general during his second act. King’s final march ended in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 17 March 1933, closing the book on a life that had helped shape both military history and the early Western film.