1. Personal life

2. Career
    Stuntwork  Acting 

3. Death

4. Awards and nominations

5. Filmography

6. Television

7. References

8. Further reading

9. External links

Richard William Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 – October 6, 2000) was an American actor and stuntman. He is best known for his performances in The Grey Fox (1982), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination, Anne of Green Gables (1985), Misery (1990), and The Straight Story (1999), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He died by suicide following a long battle with prostate cancer.

Personal life

Farnsworth was born on September 1, 1920 in Los Angeles, California, to a housewife mother and an engineer father.^[1] He was raised during the Great Depression. When he was seven, Farnsworth's father died. He then lived with his aunt, mother, and two sisters in Downtown Los Angeles.

Farnsworth had a long marriage and had two children. After becoming a widower, he lived on a ranch in Lincoln, New Mexico.

Career

Stuntwork

In 1937, age 16, Farnsworth was working as a stable hand at a polo field in Los Angeles for six dollars a week when he was offered employment with better pay as a stuntman. 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 eleven months where he drove a chariot.

Acting

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), The Wild One (1953), and The Ten Commandments (1956).

Farnsworth received his first acting credit in 1963 and went on to act in western films and also television shows. He had a role in Roots (1977). In 1992, he co-starred with Wilford Brimley in The Boys of Twilight. His breakthrough came when he played stagecoach robber Bill Miner in the 1982 Canadian film The Grey Fox. He appeared as a baseball coach in The Natural (1984). In 1985 he was the brother to Marilla and father figure to Anne in Anne of Green Gables. Another prominent role was the suspicious sheriff in the film version of Stephen King's Misery (1990).

Farnsworth became well known in the Pacific Northwest as the groundskeeper who saw the mythical "Artesians" in the 1980s Olympia Beer advertising campaign.

Death

On October 6, 2000, after a long illness with metastatic prostate cancer, Farnsworth committed suicide by shooting himself at his ranch.^[2] He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles in the Columbarium of Purity (N-63294) beside his wife, Margaret née Hill (1919–1985).

Awards and nominations

• National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor (won)
• National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (won) (tied with Robert Morley in Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?)
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (nominated)
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor (runner-up)

• Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor (won)
• London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year (won) (tied with James Mason in The Shooting Party)
• Taormina Film Fest: Golden Mask (won)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (nominated)

• Gemini Award for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor (nominated)

• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (nominated)

• Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival Award for Best Actor (won)
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead (won)
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (won)
• Academy Award for Best Actor (nominated)
• Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (nominated)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (nominated)
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor (nominated)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (runner-up)
• Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor (nominated)
• Satellite Award for Best Actor Motion Picture – Drama (nominated)
• Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (runner-up)

Filmography

Television

References

Further reading

• {{cite news |title=Richard Farnsworth |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article987278.ece |work=The Times |date=October 9, 2000 |accessdate=2009-10-19}}
• {{cite news |title=Richard Farnsworth, Stunt Man And 2-Time Oscar Nominee, 80 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/08/us/richard-farnsworth-stunt-man-and-2-time-oscar-nominee-80.html |work=The New York Times |date=October 8, 2000 |accessdate=2009-10-19}}
• {{cite news |title=Actor Richard Farnsworth dies |url=http://usproxy.bbc.com/2/hi/entertainment/961062.stm |work=BBC News |date=October 7, 2000 |accessdate=2009-10-19 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://archive.is/20130102025735/http://usproxy.bbc.com/2/hi/entertainment/961062.stm |archivedate=January 2, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}

External links

• {{IMDb name|id=0002070}}
• {{Amg name|22732}}
• {{Find a Grave|13040|Richard Farnsworth}}
• Richard Farnsworth at NNDB
• Richard Farnsworth: The Man Who Talked Straight at Moviecrazed.com
• [https://www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Kind-Darrell-Arnold/dp/0878424407 The Cowboy Kind] Farnsworth wrote the foreword to this book by Darrell Arnold. Published posthumously in 2001.
• 1999 Disney Press Kit For The Straight Story with publicity photos
• 1998 Des Moines Register Article
• The Straight Story on Lynch Net Complete Film notes, interviews, photographs, audio and trailers 1999
• Obituary Cowboy's Way by Jeff Jensen, 2000

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