Biography
Richard William Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 – October 6, 2000) was an American actor and stuntman. He is best known for his performances in Comes a Horseman (1978), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor; The Grey Fox (1982), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama; Anne of Green Gables (1985); Misery (1990); and The Straight Story (1999), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for B...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Kevin Sullivan's Classic
2006
as Self - Matthew Cuthbert (archive footage)
A look at the Anne of Green Gables film trilogy by Kevin Sullivan - Anne of Green Gables (1985), Anne of Avonlea (1987) and Anne of Green Gables: The ...

The Straight Story
1999
as Alvin
A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin ...

Best Friends for Life
1998
as Will Harper
Sarah and Harriet have been best friends since childhood. They married at the same time, had children within the same year and now find themselves fac...

Lassie
1994
as Len Collins
On their way to start a new life at a sheep farm in rural Virginia, the Turner family are halted by a wreck on the highway that has claimed the life o...

The Getaway
1994
as Slim
An ex-con and his devoted wife must flee from danger when a heist doesn't go as planned.

Highway to Hell
1991
as Sam
Charlie and Rachel run away from home to get married in Las Vegas. But they get attacked by a zombie who takes Rachel with him to hell, where she will...

Havana
1990
as Professor
During the revolution, a high-stakes gambler arrives in Cuba seeking to win big in poker games. Along the way, he meets and falls in love with the wif...

Misery
1990
as Buster
After an accident, acclaimed novelist Paul Sheldon is rescued by a nurse who claims to be his biggest fan. Her obsession takes a dark turn when she h...

The Two Jakes
1990
as Earl Rawley
Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoot...

Desperado: The Outlaw Wars
1989
as Sheriff Campbell
Duell McCall visits his old girlfriend, Nora, and learns that she gave birth to his child. He wants to stay but he is still a wanted man. So, Sherif...
Snake Treaty
1989
as Helmer
Guy Pehrsson is summoned by his grandfather to return to the farming community of his childhood. He arrives from the City to find that his mother has ...

The River Pirates
1988
as Percy
A timeless story of a boy's adventures growing up in a small Southern town, Yazoo City, in the 1940s during World War II, roaming with his friends, pl...

Space Rage
1985
as Colonel
In this sci-fi/western film set two hundred years from now, a bank robber, Grange is captured and sentenced to the penal colony on the mining planet P...

Anne of Green Gables
1985
as Matthew Cuthbert
At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. Bu...

Chase
1985
as Judge Grand Pettitt
A big-city lawyer (Jennifer O'Neill) returns to her small hometown after her father's death to resume his practice. There she is called upon to defend...

Wild Horses
1985
as Chuck Reese
An over-the-hill rodeo champion gets fired from his assembly line job in Texas. He and a buddy then decide to head to Wyoming to get a job herding mus...

Sylvester
1985
as John Foster
Charlie is a 16-year-old orphan struggling to raise her two younger brothers when she endeavors to train a wild horse she names Sylvester and turn him...

Into the Night
1985
as Jack Caper
Ed Okin used to have a boring life. He used to have trouble getting to sleep. Then one night, he met Diana. Now, Ed's having trouble staying alive.

Rhinestone
1984
as Noah Ferris
After a big-time country singer brags that she can turn anybody in to a country-singin' star, she's out to prove she can live up to her talk when she ...

The Natural
1984
as Red Blow
An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the lea...
Ghost Dancing
1983
as Russ Ward
Farm widow Sarah Bowman has been impoverished by the siphoning of her water supply. A nearby big-city aqueduct has priority over water rights, leaving...

Travis McGee
1983
as Van Harder
Travis McGee is a world-weary private eye trying to help boat skipper friend Van Harder salvage his reputation that sank when his boat ran aground, re...

Independence Day
1983
as Evan
Mary Ann Taylor loves the comforts of her hometown in Mercury, Texas. She has a steady job as a waitress in her father's diner, yet she can't help but...

The Grey Fox
1982
as Bill Miner
Old West highwayman Bill Miner, known to Pinkertons as "The Gentleman Bandit," is released in 1901 after 33 years in prison. A genial and charming old...

Waltz Across Texas
1982
as Frank Walker
A wildcatter and a geologist prospect for oil and love in West Texas.

A Few Days at Weasel Creek
1981
as Jason Stayvey
Serio-comic road movie about a feisty girl who sets out for California and hitches a ride for herself and her house trailer with a runaway farm boy an...

The Legend of the Lone Ranger
1981
as Wild Bill Hickok
When the young Texas Ranger, John Reid, is the sole survivor of an ambush arranged by the militaristic outlaw leader, Butch Cavendich, he is rescued b...

Louis L'Amour's The Cherokee Trail
1981
as Ridge Fenton
In the late 19th Century, Mary Breydon, a widow, and Peggy Breydon, her daughter manage a stagecoach stop on The Cherokee Trail. The story is told fro...

Ruckus
1981
as Sheriff Jethro Pough
Madoc County is a quiet and peaceful place until vagrant Kyle Hanson arrives. The people of Madoc County are repelled by his appearance and want to ch...

Resurrection
1980
as Esco
The story of a woman who survives the car accident which kills her husband, but discovers that she has the power to heal other people. She becomes an ...

Tom Horn
1980
as John Coble
A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job...

Comes a Horseman
1978
as Dodger
Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex-suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her ne...

Another Man, Another Chance
1977
as Stagecoach Driver
Young Jeanne falls in love with photographer Francis, who soon takes her with him when he emigrates to America. In a small town in the still wild west...

The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox
1976
as Stagecoach driver
A female hustler is chasing after rich men, but becomes repeatedly mixed up with a suave con man and card shark through a series of misadventures befo...

The Master Gunfighter
1975
Stunts
Don Santiago (Richard Angarola) is a vicious man who helps provoke an Indian massacre that will allow him to steal the Indians' land and claim it as h...

Strange New World
1975
as Elder
In the near future, a group of scientists living in a space ship wake up from a hibernation state and come back to an apocalyptic Earth.

The Apple Dumpling Gang
1975
as Mover
A roving bachelor gets saddled with three children and a wealth of trouble when the youngsters stumble upon a huge gold nugget. They join forces with ...

The Front Page
1974
Stunts
A journalist suffering from burn-out wants to finally say goodbye to his office – but his boss doesn’t like the idea one bit.

Honky Tonk
1974
as Driver
In the wild west con-man 'Candy' Johnson heads to Nevada to set up his own gambling den and teams up with Lucy Cotton, a young woman he meets there. T...

Blazing Saddles
1974
as Sheriff (uncredited)
A town—where everyone seems to be named Johnson—stands in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, robber baron Hedley Lamarr sends his h...

Papillon
1973
as Manhunter (uncredited)
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his esca...

Papillon
1973
Stunts
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his esca...

The Soul of Nigger Charley
1973
as Walker
After the end of the Civil War, Charley fights against a group of Southern soldiers seeking to reignite the Confederacy.

High Plains Drifter
1973
Stunts
A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the ...

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
1972
as Outlaw
Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving t...

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
1972
Stunts
Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving t...

Ulzana's Raid
1972
as Trooper
A report reaches the US Army Cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, L...

Pocket Money
1972
as Man (uncredited)
Broke and in debt, an otherwise honest cowboy and his buddy get mixed up in some shady dealings with a crooked cattle dealer.

The Cowboys
1972
as Henry Williams
When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to ge...

Skin Game
1971
as Man in Saloon fight (uncredited)
Quincy Drew and Jason O’Rourke, a pair of friends and con men—the former white, the latter a Northern-born free Black man— travel from town to town in...

Monte Walsh
1970
as Cowboy
Monte Walsh is an aging cowboy facing the ending days of the Wild West era. As barbed wire and railways steadily eliminate the need for the cowboy, Mo...

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
1969
as Workman (uncredited)
An aging lawman and an aging outlaw join forces when their respective positions in society are usurped by a younger, but incompetent Marshal, and a yo...

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
1969
Stunts
An aging lawman and an aging outlaw join forces when their respective positions in society are usurped by a younger, but incompetent Marshal, and a yo...

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1969
Stunts
As the west rapidly becomes civilized, a pair of outlaws in 1890s Wyoming find themselves pursued by a posse and decide to flee to South America in ho...

Sam Whiskey
1969
as Pete the Guard (uncredited)
A widow hires an ex-gambler to retrieve gold bars from a sunken river boat in Colorado and discreetly return them to the Federal Mint, from where they...

The Stalking Moon
1968
as Man (uncredited)
While moving a group of Apaches to a Native American reservation in Arizona, an American scout named Sam Varner is surprised to find a white woman, Sa...

The Stalking Moon
1968
Stunts
While moving a group of Apaches to a Native American reservation in Arizona, an American scout named Sam Varner is surprised to find a white woman, Sa...

Assignment to Kill
1968
Stunts
A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance mon...

The War Wagon
1967
Stunts
An ex-con seeks revenge on the man who put him in prison by planning a robbery of the latter's stagecoach, which is transporting gold. He enlists the ...

Texas Across the River
1966
as Medicine Man
The Louisiana wedding of debutante Phoebe Ann Naylor to Don Andrea de Baldasar, El Duce de la Casala is stopped by the Cavalry over a matter of honor....

Duel at Diablo
1966
as Wagon Driver #1 (uncredited)
In Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Native wife, and a housewife abandons he...

Duel at Diablo
1966
Stunts
In Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Native wife, and a housewife abandons he...

The War Lord
1965
Stunts
A knight in the service of a duke goes to a coastal village where an earlier attempt to build a defensive castle has failed. He begins to rebuild the ...

Cat Ballou
1965
Stunts
A woman seeking revenge for her murdered father hires a famous gunman, but he's very different from what she expects.

Major Dundee
1965
Stunts
During the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Amos Dundee leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners and scouts on a...

How the West Was Won
1962
Stunts
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one ...

Spartacus
1960
as Salt Mine Slave / Gladiator / Slave General (uncredited)
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena,...

The Hard Man
1957
as Posse Man (uncredited)
A Texas Ranger turns deputy sheriff; a woman wants him to kill her cattle-baron husband.

The Tin Star
1957
as Posse Member (uncredited)
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge.

The Tin Star
1957
Stunts
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge.

The Ten Commandments
1956
as Chariot Driver (uncredited)
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal qu...

The Indian Fighter
1955
Stunts
A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.

A Lawless Street
1955
as Townsman (uncredited)
A Marshal must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out of town.

The Violent Men
1955
as Anchor Rider (uncredited)
A former Union Army officer plans to sell out to Anchor Ranch and move east with his fiancée, but the low price offered by Anchor's crippled owner and...

The Caine Mutiny
1954
Stunts
When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardize his ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial ...

The Wild One
1953
as Man (uncredited)
The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club ride into the small California town of Wrightsville, eager to raise hell. Brooding gang leader Johnny Strabler takes ...

Arena
1953
as Cowboy
Left by his wife, a vain rodeo star picks up a floozy and rides a bad Brahman bull.

The Lusty Men
1952
Stunts
Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of...

Horizons West
1952
Stunts
Brothers Dan and Neil Hammond return to Texas after the Civil War. Ambitious Dan turns to rustling and then shady land deals to build an empire. Being...

The Flame and the Arrow
1950
as Outlaw (uncredited)
Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency aga...

The Flame and the Arrow
1950
Stunts
Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency aga...

Mighty Joe Young
1949
as Cowboy (uncredited)
A young woman, Jill Young, grew up on her father's ranch in Africa, raising a large gorilla named Joe from an infant. Years later, she brings him to H...

Red River
1948
as Dunston Rider (uncredited)
Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journe...

Red River
1948
Stunt Double
Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journe...

Fort Apache
1948
Stunts
Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant,...

Stallion Road
1947
Stunts
A veterinarian and a novelist compete for the heart of a lady rancher.

California
1947
Stunts
"Wicked" Lily Bishop joins a wagon train to California, led by Michael Fabian and Johnny Trumbo, but news of the Gold Rush scatters the train. When Jo...

Duel in the Sun
1946
Stunts
Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad...

This Is the Army
1943
as Soldier (uncredited)
In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son...

The Outlaw
1943
Stunts
Newly appointed sheriff Pat Garrett is pleased when his old friend Doc Holliday arrives in Lincoln, New Mexico on the stage. Doc is trailing his stole...

The Grapes of Wrath
1940
Stunts
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncl...

Gone with the Wind
1939
as Soldier (uncredited)
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruc...

Gunga Din
1939
as (uncredited)
British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din. While compl...

The Adventures of Marco Polo
1938
as Mongol Warrior (uncredited)
The Venetian traveler Marco Polo meets Kublai Khan and foils a plotter with fireworks in medieval China.