Quick Facts
| Intro | American actor, singer and dancer | ||
| Was | Actor Singer Stage actor | ||
| From | United States of America | ||
| Field | Film, TV, Stage & Radio Music | ||
| Gender | male | ||
| Birth | 27 May 1874, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, U.S.A. | ||
| Death | 3 July 1929, Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.A. (aged 55 years) | ||
| Star sign | Gemini | ||
| Family |
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Biography
Dustin Lancy Farnum (May 27, 1874 – July 3, 1929) was an American singer, dancer, and actor on the stage and in silent films. Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the biggest stars of the genre.
Biography
He was born on May 27, 1874, in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. He was the older brother of actor William Farnum, whom he closely resembled, and the lesser known silent film director Marshall Farnum (died 1917).
He married Mary Cromwell in 1909 and they divorced in 1924. He then married Winifred Kingston. Winifred Kingston and he are the parents of radio actress Estelle "Dustine" Runyon (1925–1983).
After a great success in a number of stage roles, in 1914 Farnum landed his first film role in the movie Soldiers of Fortune, and later in Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man.
He died of kidney failure on July 3, 1929, at Post Graduate Hospital in Manhattan, New York City.
Filmography
- Soldiers of Fortune (1914)
- The Squaw Man (1914)
- The Lightning Conductor (1914)
- The Virginian (1914)
- When We Were Young (1914)
- Cameo Kirby (1914)
- Captain Courtesy (1915)
- The Iron Strain (1916)
- The Gentleman from Indiana (1916)
- The Call of the Cumberlands (1916)
- Ben Blair (1916)
- David Garrick (1916)
- Davy Crockett (1916)
- The Parson of Panamint (1916)
- The Intrigue (1916)
- A Son of Erin (1916)
- Durand of the Bad Lands (1917)
- The Spy (1917)
- North of Fifty Three (1917)
- The Scarlet Pimpernel (1917)
- Ready Money Ringfield (1918)
- The Light of Western Stars (1918)
- A Man in the Open (1919)
- A Man's Fight (1919)
- The Corsican Brothers (1920)
- Big Happiness (1921)
- The Primal Law (1921)
- The Devil Within (1921)
- Iron to Gold (1922)
- Strange Idols (1922)
- Oath-Bound (1922)
- Trail of the Axe (1922)
- The Yosemite Trail (1922)
- While Justice Waits (1922)
- Three Who Paid (1923)
- The Buster (1923)
- Bucking the Barrier (1923)
- The Man Who Won (1923)
- The Grail (1923)
- Kentucky Days (1923)
- My Man (1924)
- The Flaming Frontier (1926)
Broadway plays
- A Romance of Athlone (January 29, 1900 – March 3, 1900)
- Marcelle (October 1900)
- More Than Queen (October 30, 1900 – November 1900)
- The Virginian (January 5, 1904 – May 1904)
- The Ranger (September 1907)
- The Rector's Garden (March 1908)
- Cameo Kirby (December 20, 1909 – January 1910)
- The Silent Call (January 1911)
- The Squaw Man (January 9, 1911 – January 17, 1911)
- The Littlest Rebel (November 14, 1911 – January 1912)
- Arizona (April 28, 1913 – June 1913)
Legacy
According to an interview in the April 1975 edition of Playboy, Dustin Hoffman was named after Farnum. Additionally, according to an interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, on January 16, 2013, Dustin says his parents were expecting him to be a girl and did not have a boy's name picked out for him. When his Mother was pressured to give him a name, she picked the name Dustin from a magazine the other lady in her room was reading, which featured Dustin Farnum on the cover.
