Saddle up for a trip through entertainment history with a weekly highlight from Santa Clarita’s Walk of Western Stars! This week, actor Richard Farnsworth!

Richard Farnsworth was born on Sept. 1, 1920, in Los Angeles, California and was an American actor and stuntman. His mother was a homemaker and his father was an engineer. 

Farnworth gradually moved into acting in Western movies and 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. 

The actor received his first acting credit in 1963 and went on to act in Western films and television shows. 

Farnsworth had roles in Roots (1977) and co-starred with Wilford Brimley in The Boys of Twilight (1992).

The actor’s breakthrough came when he played stagecoach robber Bill Miner in the 1982 Canadian film, The Grey Fox. 

In 1985, Farnsworth was 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. 

The actor’s 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). 

The actor was nominated twice for an Academy Award, in 1978 for Best Supporting Actor for Comes a Horseman and again in 2000 for Best Actor in The Straight Story, making him the oldest nominee for the award at the time. 

Farnsworth was also known for his performance in The Grey Fox (1982), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in Motion Picture – Drama, as well as Anne of Green Gables (1985); Sylvester (1985) and Misery (1990). 

In 1947, Farnsworth married his wife, Margaret Hill and remained married until her death in 1985. The couple shared two children, including fellow Western Walk of Stars alum Diamond Farnsworth. After becoming a widower, the family lived on a ranch in Lincoln, New Mexico. 

On the night of Oct. 6, 2000, after suffering from terminal cancer that left him partially paralyzed and in great pain, Farnsworth died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his ranch. 

Where is Richard Farnsworth’s Plaque on the Walk of Western Stars?

In 2000, Farnsworth was honored with a plaque on the Walk of Western Stars. The plaque is on the east side of Main Street, south of Market Street, in front of The Main.

Click here to view last week’s feature.  

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