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William Farnum

William Farnum

Birthday: 1876-07-04 | Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William Farnum (July 4, 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts – June 5, 1953 in Hollywood, California) was a major movie actor. One of three brothers, Farnum grew up in a family of actors. He made his acting debut at the age of ten in Richmond, Virginia in a production of Julius Caesar, with Edwin Booth playing the title character. His first major success was as the title character of Ben-Hur in 1900 though replacing the original actor Edward Morgan who premiered the character in 1899. Later plays Farnum appeared in were the costume epic The Prince of India (1906), The White Sister (1909) starring Viola Allen, The Littlest Rebel (1911) co-starring his brother Dustin and a child actress named Mary Miles Minter(then nine years old) & Arizona (1913) with Dustin and stage beauty Elsie Ferguson. In The Spoilers in 1914, Farnum and Tom Santschi staged a classic movie fight which lasted for a full reel. In 1930, Farnum and Stantschi coached Gary Cooper and William Boyd in the fight scene for the 1930 version of The Spoilers. Other actors influenced by the Farnum scene were Milton Sills and Noah Beery in 1922 and Randolph Scott and John Wayne in 1942. From 1915 to 1925, Farnum devoted his life to motion pictures. When becoming one of the biggest sensations in Hollywood, he also became one of the highest-paid actors, earning $10,000 a week. Farnum's silent pictures the western Drag Harlan(1920) and the drama-adventure If I Were King(1921) survive from his years contracted to Fox Films. Farnum has a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was the younger brother of actor Dustin Farnum. He had another brother, Marshall Farnum, who was a silent film director and died in 1917. Description above from the Wikipedia article William Farnum, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1952
Jack and the Beanstalk

as    The King

1952
Lone Star

as    Tom Crockett

1949
Daughter of the West

as    Father Vallejo

1949
Samson and Delilah

as    Tubal

1946
God's Country

as    Sandy McTavish

1945
Captain Kidd

as    Capt. Rawson

1945
Wildfire

as    Judge Polson

1942
Deep in the Heart of Texas

as    Colonel Mallory

1942
The Silver Bullet

as    Dr. Thad Morgan

1942
Men of Texas

as    General Sam Houston

1942
Today I Hang

as    Warden Burke

1942
The Spoilers

as    Wheaton

1941
Gangs of Sonora

as    Ward Beecham

1940
Adventures of Red Ryder

as    Colonel Tom Ryder

1940
Convicted Woman

as    Commissioner McNeill

1939
Mexicali Rose

as    Padre Dominic

1938
Santa Fe Stampede

as    Dave Carson

1938
Shine On Harvest Moon

as    Milt Brower

1937
Git Along Little Dogies

as    Banker Maxwell

1937
Public Cowboy No. 1

as    Sheriff Matt Doniphon

1936
The Kid Ranger

as    Bill Mason

1936
The Vigilantes Are Coming

as    Father José

1936
Custer's Last Stand

as    James Fitzpatrick

1936
Sharad of Atlantis

as    Sharad

1935
The Eagle's Brood

as    El Toro

1935
Between Men

as    John Wellington / Rand

1935
Million Dollar Haul

as    Mr. Mallory - Sheila's Dad

1934
The Silver Streak

as    B.J. Dexter

1934
The Brand of Hate

as    Joe Larkins

1933
Supernatural

as    Nicky Hammond