William Farnum
Birthday: 1876-07-04 | Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USAFrom 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.
Known For
Acting
Role
as The King
as Tom Crockett
as Father Vallejo
as Tubal
as Sandy McTavish
as Capt. Rawson
as Judge Polson
as Colonel Mallory
as Dr. Thad Morgan
as General Sam Houston
as Warden Burke
as Wheaton
as Ward Beecham
as Colonel Tom Ryder
as Commissioner McNeill
as Padre Dominic
as Dave Carson
as Milt Brower
as Banker Maxwell
as Sheriff Matt Doniphon
as Bill Mason
as Father José
as James Fitzpatrick
as Sharad
as El Toro
as John Wellington / Rand
as Mr. Mallory - Sheila's Dad
as B.J. Dexter
as Joe Larkins
as Nicky Hammond
