William Smith (June 5, 1878 - July 4, 1961), better known by his screen name Franklyn Farnum, was an American character actor and Hollywood extra who appeared in 433 productions between the years 1916 and 1961.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1878, Farnum became a vaudeville actor at the age of 12 and featured in a number of theatre and musical productions by the time he entered silent films near the age of 40. He appeared to be at his most comfortable in a saddle, his career dominated mostly by westerns. Some of his more famous films include the serial Vanishing Trails (1920) and the features The Clock (1917), The Firebrand (1922), The Drug Store Cowboy (1925) and The Gambling Fool (1925). In 1925, he left films, but returned five years later at the advent of sound, only to find himself billed much further down the credits, if billed at all. He continued on, however, in these obscure roles well into the 1950s.
One of his three wives was the ill-fated actress Alma Rubens whom he was briefly married to in 1918. He had one daughter, Martha Lillian Smith, who was born in 1898.
Farnum appeared in six Academy Award for Best Picture winners, more than any other actor in history: The Life of Emile Zola (1937), The Lost Weekend (1945), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), All About Eve (1950), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).
He died of cancer in Woodland Hills, California in 1961 at the age of 83.
See also
List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners
Selected filmography
- The Empty Gun (1917)
- Anything Once (1917)
- The Scarlet Car (1917)
- Fast Company (1918)
- Vanishing Trails (1920)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
What Becomes of the Children? (1936)- The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
- Stagecoach (1939)
- Meet John Doe (1941)
- Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
- The Lost Weekend (1945)
- The Jolson Story (1946)
- Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
- Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
- Road to Rio (1947)
- Johnny Belinda (1948)
- I Remember Mama (1948)
- The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)
- All About Eve (1950)
- Sunset Boulevard (1950)
- The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Here Comes the Groom (1951)
- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
- Carrie (1952)
- The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
- A Star Is Born (1954)
- White Christmas (1954)
- Black Widow (1954)
- The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
- East of Eden (1955)
- Guys and Dolls (1955)
- The Ten Commandments (1956)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
- My Man Godfrey (1957)
- King Creole (1958)
- Pillow Talk (1959)
External links
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