William Farnum

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 BenHur 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 costarring his brother Dustin and a child actress named Mary Miles Minterthen nine years old amp 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 highestpaid actors earning 10000 a week Farnums silent pictures the western Drag Harlan1920 and the dramaadventure If I Were King1921 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia