Franklyn Farnum
Franklyn Farnum ( born June 5, 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts, † July 4, 1961 in Woodland Hills, California; actually William Smith ) was an American actor and music hall artists. He was neither related nor related by marriage to the better known and more successful show sizes Dustin Farnum (1874-1929) and William Farnum (1876-1953), who also came from Boston.
Life
Franklyn Farnum is supposed to be already occurred as a twelve year old on vaudeville stages. After 1914, he came to the film, where he participated in over 460 productions 1916-1961. In 1917 he was able to take a lead role in the film Anything Once. In the silent era Farnum was predominantly represented in Western movies, most of which were quickly and cheaply produced smaller films. As a Western hero his portrayal of cowboys was more oriented to the austere type characterized by William S. Hart, than to the more artificial type, which is associated with the name Tom Mix. After 1925 Farnum interrupted his film career, but returned in 1930 back to the now booming sound film. Not least because of his advanced age he was now largely reduced to supporting roles in later years he was often involved only as an extra.
Farnum played only actor with in six films that have won an Oscar for best film. The award-winning films were: The Lost Weekend, Gentleman's Agreement, All About Eve, in 80 Days around the World, The Life of Emile Zola and The Greatest Show on Earth ( to be in the past without called uncredited). Other well-known films with the participation Farnums were the Western, the hero of the Plains (1936 premiere ) by Cecil B. DeMille and Ringo by John Ford The latter film was not only a revival of Westerns and launch of the great talkie Western productions of Hollywood, but also provided a rendezvous of many former stars of the silent film western scene.
Farnum was for many years president of the U.S. trade union, the movie extras (Screen Extras Guild ). From a first marriage with Mary E. Casey, born 1898 daughter Martha Lilian Smith emerged. After a second marriage with his wife Edith Farnum was briefly married to the actor colleague Alma Rubens in 1918. This marriage, which caused some public attention, but was divorced after just one month.