Cause of death Suicide Name Richard Farnsworth | Occupation Actor Role Actor Years active 1937–99 | |
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Resting place Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)Los Angeles, California34°08′42″N 118°19′12″E / 34.145°N 118.320°E / 34.145; 118.320 Spouse Margaret Hill (m. 1947–1985) Children Diamond Farnsworth, Missy Farnsworth Movies The Straight Story, Misery, Anne of Green Gables, The Grey Fox, Comes a Horseman Similar People Alvin Straight, Colleen Dewhurst, Schuyler Grant, Kevin Sullivan, Megan Follows |
Straight story 1999 richard farnsworth
Richard W. 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. His sudden death followed a long struggle with prostate cancer.
Contents
- Straight story 1999 richard farnsworth
- Comes a horseman 1978 richard farnsworth james caan bar scene
- Personal life
- Stuntwork
- Acting
- Death
- Awards and nominations
- References

Comes a horseman 1978 richard farnsworth james caan bar scene
Personal life

Farnsworth was born on September 1, 1920 in Los Angeles, California, to a housewife mother and an engineer father. 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 enjoyed a long marriage and had two children, Diamond and Missy. After becoming a widower, he lived on a ranch in Lincoln, New Mexico.
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 battle with metastatic prostate cancer, Farnsworth committed suicide by shooting himself at his ranch. 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
Note: Farnsworth was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1997. In addition, Farnsworth received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star for his contributions in the motion pictures on 1560 Vine Street on August 17, 1992.