Richard Farnsworth Career Pattern
Feb 20, 2025
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Birth: Roswell, New Mexico
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Education: Fairfax High School
Training: Model
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TV Debut: “General Hospital” in 1981, aged 19
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Other Awards: Emmy nom
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(Sep 1, 1920 – Oct 6, 2000) was an American actor and stuntman.
He was twice nominated for an Academy Award: in 1978 for Best Supporting Actor for Comes a Horseman, and in 2000 for Best Actor in The Straight Story, making him the second–oldest nominee for the award for the latter.
Farnsworth was also known for his performances in The Grey Fox (1982), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, as well as Anne of Green Gables (1985), Sylvester (1985), and Misery (1990).
Farnsworth was born on September 1, 1920, in Los Angeles, California. His mother was a homemaker and his father was an engineer.
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). In 1960, credited as Dick Farnsworth, he appeared as a Gault ranch hand in the “Street of Hate” episode of the TV Western Laramie.
He received his first acting credit in a film in 1963 and went on to act in many Western films and television shows. He had a role in Roots (1977) and co-starred with Wilford Brimley in The Boys of Twilight (1992). He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for the Alan J. Pakula film Comes a Horseman (1978). A 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 played the brother to Marilla and father figure to Anne in Anne of Green Gables and starred as a soft-spoken, sage cowboy with horse training wisdom for Melissa Gilbert in Sylvester.[4] His other prominent roles included a wealthy and ruthless oil man in The Two Jakes (1990) and the suspicious sheriff in the film version of Stephen King’s Misery (1990). His final role was playing Alvin Straight in the David Lynch film The Straight Story (1999), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination.
Farnsworth had a long marriage and had two children. After becoming a widower, he lived on a ranch in Lincoln, New Mexico.
On the night of October 6, 2000, suffering from terminal cancer that left him partially paralyzed and in great pain, Farnsworth died from self-inflicted gunshot wound at his ranch in Lincoln.
The Stalking Moon Unknown Uncredited
1970 Monte Walsh Cowboy
1971 Skin Game Man In Saloon Fight Uncredited
1972 The Cowboys Henry Williams
Pocket Money Man Uncredited
Ulzana’s Raid Trooper
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean Outlaw
1973 The Soul of Nigger Charley Walker
Papillon Manhunter #1 Uncredited
1974 Blazing Saddles Sheriff
1975 The Apple Dumpling Gang Mover
1976 The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox Stagecoach Driver
The Outlaw Josey Wales Comanchero Uncredited
1977 Another Man, Another Chance Stagecoach Driver
1978 Comes a Horseman Dodger
1980 Tom Horn John C. Coble
Ruckus Sheriff Jethro Pough
Resurrection Esco
1981 The Legend of the Lone Ranger ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok
1982 The Grey Fox Bill Miner
Waltz Across Texas Frank Walker
1983 Independence Day Evan
1984 The Natural ‘Red’ Blow
Rhinestone Noah Farris
1985 Into the Night Jack Caper
Sylvester Foster
Space Rage Colonel
1988 The River Pirates Percy
1990 The Two Jakes Earl Rawley
Misery Sheriff Buster
Havana Professor
1992 Highway to Hell Sam
1994 The Getaway ‘Slim’
Lassie Len Collins
1999 The Straight Story Alvin Straight
As Richard Farnsworth’s career shows, it is possible to receive an Oscar nomination at an old age. Fransworth was nominated twice, in 1978 for Supporting Actor in “Comes a Horseman,” and in 1999 for Best Actor in “The Straight Story.”
More than half a century ago, Farnsworth swore off speaking roles after his first crack in a Roy Rogers Western. The director wanted the then stuntman to say a few lines, but every time Farnsworth tried, he broke out in giggles. Eventually, the director gave up, and Farnsworth promised himself, never again.
Decades later, Farnsworth was persuaded to give acting another shot by Alan J. Pakula in the Western, Comes a Horseman, for which he was rewarded with a 1978 supporting nod.
In the twilight of a career, which began with playing a Mongol horseman in 1938’s The Adventures of Marco Polo, Farnsworth found himself nominated for a powerful performance in David Lynch’s The Straight Story (1999) as the reallife, stubborn Alvin Straight, who insisted on driving a lawnmower hundreds of miles to visit his ailing brother. “I’m pretty limited in a lot of ways,” Farnsworth told Entertainment Weekly. “But if I feel the character, it’s damn easy to do.”
In truth, it hurt to connect with Straight: Bum hips were killing the actor during the driving scenes, and then there was the agony of recounting Straight’s World War II memories–a vet himself, Farnsworth won’t talk about his war experience.
Oscar Alert
In 1978, the winner of the Supporting Actor Oscar was Christopher Walken in “The Deer Hunter.
In 1999, the winner of the Best Actor Oscar was Kevin Spacey for “American Beauty.”
