Richard Farnsworth

Remembering the life of Richard Farnsworth for his Birthday! An American stuntman who, after more than 30 years in the business, moved into acting and became an acclaimed and respected character actor, Richard Farnsworth was a native of Los Angeles. He grew up around horses and as a teenager was offered an opportunity to ride in films. In 1937, age 16, He rode horses in films such as The Adventures of Marco Polo featuring Gary Cooper and performed horse-riding stunts in films including A Day at the Races (1937) and Gunga Din (1939). Farnsworth was employed on the set of Spartacus (1960) for 11 months in which he drove a chariot. From stunt work, Farnsworth gradually moved into acting in Western movies. He made uncredited appearances in numerous films, including Gone with the Wind (1939), Red River (1948), Mighty Joe Young (1949, The Wild One (1953), and The Ten Commandments (1956). Farnsworth received his first acting credit in 1963 for the short film The Jolly Genie. His other early film credits include Texas Across the River (1966) with Dean Martin, Monte Walsh (1970) with Lee Marvin, The Cowboys (1972) with John Wayne, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) with Paul Newman, Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974) and The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976) with Goldie Hawn and George Segal. When he won an Academy Award nomination for his role in Comes a Horseman (1978), it came as a surprise to many in the industry that this "newcomer" had been around since the 1930s. He followed with roles in Tom Horn (1980), Resurrection (1980) and The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981). He played stagecoach robber Bill Miner in the 1982 Canadian film The Grey Fox. for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, He appeared as a baseball coach in The Natural (1984), appeared alongside Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone (1984), was in John Landis' Into the Night (1985) with Jeff Goldblum, played a ruthless oil man in The Two Jakes (1990), played the suspicious sheriff in the film version of Stephen King's horror classic Misery (1990), reunited with Robert Redford in Havana (1990), worked with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin in the remake The Getaway (1994) and with Michelle Williams in film version of Lassie (1994). Known for a dislike of four-letter words, he was embarrassed by the language in The Getaway. In 1999 he came out of semi-retirement for a tour-de-force portrayal in David Lynch's The Straight Story, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. On Television he was a guest star in Zane Grey Theatre, Laramie, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Big Valley, Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven. He had a role in Roots (1977) and he was the brother to Marilla and father figure to Anne in the TV movie Anne of Green Gables (1985). Shortly before his death, when asked by film critic Roger Ebert what he was most proud of in regard to his acting career, he replied that it was the fact that in over 60 movies he never says one cuss word. He was married to Margaret Hill from 1947 until her death in 1985, they had two children. He was engaged to Jewely Van Valin at the time of his death. On October 6, 2000, suffering from terminal cancer that left him partially paralyzed and in great pain, Farnsworth committed suicide by shooting himself at his ranch.