Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture
Western. Fascinated by the Old West, he acquired
Billy the Kid's
"six shooters" and was a friend of legendary lawmen
Wyatt Earp and
Bat Masterson. He entered films in 1914, and after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom the same year as the lead in the feature
The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making realistic Western films. His films are noted for their authentic
costumes and
props, as well as Hart's acting ability, honed on Shakespearean theater stages in the United States and England. Beginning in 1915, Hart starred in his own series of two-reel Western short subjects for producer
Thomas Ince, which were so popular that they were supplanted by a series of feature films. Many of Hart's early films continued to play in theaters, under new titles, for another decade. In 1915 and 1916 exhibitors voted him the biggest money making star in the United States. In 1917 Hart accepted a lucrative offer from
Adolph Zukor to join
Famous Players–Lasky, which merged into
Paramount Pictures. In the films Hart began to ride a brown and white
pinto he called
Fritz. Fritz was the forerunner of later famous movie horses known by their own name, e.g., horses like Tom Mix's
Tony, Roy Rogers's
Trigger and Clayton Moore's
Silver. In 1917, to signify "his patriotism and loyalty to Uncle Sam" it was announced he would "change the name of his favorite horse from Fritz to one more truly American". He also volunteered from 1917 to 1918 with the
Four Minute Men program to give short pro-war speeches across the country. Hart was now making feature films exclusively, and films like
Square Deal Sanderson and
The Toll Gate were popular with fans. In 1919 Hart's
John Petticoats costar was a young actress named
Winifred Westover. The film was made in New Orleans, and was a departure from Hart's usual roles, as he played a lumberman who was informed he'd inherited a shop selling ladies clothing. '' In 1921, Hollywood comic actor
Roscoe Arbuckle was charged with rape and manslaughter in the death of aspiring actress
Virginia Rappe. Amid the controversy, many of Arbuckle's fellow actors declined public comment on the case. However, Hart, who had never worked with Arbuckle or even met him, made a number of damaging public statements in which he presumed the actor's guilt. Arbuckle, who was eventually acquitted but saw his career ruined, later wrote a premise for a film parodying Hart as a thief, bully and wife beater, and it was bought by
Buster Keaton. The following year, Keaton co-wrote, directed and starred in the 1922 comedy film
The Frozen North. As a result, Hart refused to speak to Keaton for many years. By the early 1920s, Hart's brand of gritty, rugged Westerns with drab costumes and moralistic themes gradually fell out of fashion. The public became attracted by a new kind of movie cowboy, epitomized by
Tom Mix, who wore flashier costumes and was involved in more action scenes. Paramount dropped Hart, who then made one last bid for his kind of Western. He produced
Tumbleweeds (1925) with his own money, arranging to release it independently through
United Artists. The film turned out well, with an epic land-rush sequence, but did only fair business at the box office. Hart was angered by United Artists' failure to promote his film properly and sued the studio. The legal proceedings dragged on for years, and the courts finally ruled in Hart's favor, in 1940. ==Career eclipse==