Farewell to a True Good Guy

He was a most unusual man, said his agent of nearly two decades. She had never had a signed contract with Richard Farnsworth in all those years. The actor’s handshake was his bond, and he never went back on his word.

“There are not that many actors--or human beings, for that matter--you can say that about,” said Diane Davis-Olf, closing the book on a friendship in which he affectionately called her “Little One.”

“He was what he was,” she added, “a true American in every sense of the word.”

Charlton Heston, who worked with him in “The Omega Man” and other films when Farnsworth was making a living as a stuntman, called him “one of the good guys.”

“All the cowboys are like that,” Heston said. “They have an absolute security in who they are. . . . I worked throughout my career with stuntmen and they almost all are real people. . . . You don’t want to press them, but all are decent guys. Dick Farnsworth was one of the best.”

Wilford Brimley, who appeared with Farnsworth as the baseball manager in “The Natural,” added: “He was one of the best men I ever knew. A simple, honest man with a tremendous sense of humor and a joy to be around. I knew him 25 years.”

David Lynch, who directed Farnsworth to an Academy Award nomination for best actor in “The Straight Story,” summed up his talent this way: “He made the lines real inside himself, and I consider that the mark of a great actor. He didn’t even consider himself an actor, let alone a great actor. I just think he had a tremendous gift.”

When Farnsworth died last week at age 80 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on his ranch in Lincoln, N.M., Hollywood lost a true friend, but more than that, it lost a human bridge to a golden era the industry will never see again.

Earned Oscar Nod for ‘Straight Story’

There was no glitz or glamour to Richard Farnsworth, just a quiet, inner strength and that amazing face with the gray hair and mustache and those sad, yet wistful, blue eyes that seemed better suited to the silent era, when an actor didn’t require words to captivate an audience.

Who could forget the scene in the 1982 film “The Grey Fox,” in which Farnsworth, playing the charming bandit, Bill Miner, just out of prison, walks into a room where people are watching the silent film “The Great Train Robbery”? The look on his face of contained excitement as he watches the robbery and gunplay unfold on the screen said it all. Who needed words?

Only last March, this onetime rodeo bareback rider and movie stuntman had climbed Mt. Olympus with a best actor nomination for his performance as Alvin Straight, the Iowa man who rode a lawn mower more than 250 miles to see his ailing, estranged brother, in Lynch’s 1999 film “The Straight Story.”

It was Farnsworth’s second Oscar nomination. He received his first nomination as the devoted ranch hand in the 1978 film “Comes a Horseman.” Other memorable roles would follow in “The Grey Fox,” “The Natural” and “Misery.”

With his cowboy hat and a cherished cane given him by former Dallas Cowboys football star Walt Garrison, Farnsworth smiled broadly and waved as he walked up the red carpet to the cheers of the crowd.

Some accounts said he was greatly disappointed when he failed to win the statuette (Kevin Spacey won for “American Beauty”), but Farnsworth’s son said that wasn’t the case at all.

“He was disappointed for about five minutes, but there were 80 years of his life that he loved,” Diamond Farnsworth said. “That’s not too bad.”

Although he had been battling prostate cancer for about seven years and was in great pain in recent months, he held out hope that he could return to the screen next year.

Dealt With Pain While Making Movie

Indeed, Farnsworth had discussed playing a role with Heston in a film called “The Last Man’s Club,” the story of a group of former World War II B-17 aviators who make a pledge that the last surviving member of their group will open a bottle of champagne that they had purchased together years before.

Even if he lost the use of his legs for good, Farnsworth reasoned, he could still do the part. “Lionel Barrymore did a lot of work in a wheelchair,” Farnsworth told his agent.

During filming of “The Straight Story,” Farnsworth was in pain, but brushed it off to others as an arthritic hip. Only his family knew what was really ailing him.

Mary Sweeney, who co-wrote “The Straight Story,” said the news of his cancer came as a total shock.

“We knew Richard had certain physical problems, but none of them were life-threatening or terminal as far as we knew,” she said. “But it was clear there were certain spells he had during the shoot, when he seemed to be in greater discomfort. Certain movements caused a wave of pain to cross his face. We just assumed it was his hip, his arthritis hurting.”

“We did everything we could to make him comfortable,” Lynch recalled. “He fell in love with his silicone pillow that he used when he rode on his first tractor.

“He was going through misery, but he got younger as the filming progressed,” the director added. “He got out of the chair easier on the last day of shooting than he did on the first day of shooting. I think the filming process and the people and the fact he thought he was succeeding in his work gave him an additional boost.”

Farnsworth’s agent said that the actor suffered a “stroke on his spine” several months ago and was treated at UCLA Medical Center.

“Then he went back to his ranch and was getting therapy,” Davis-Olf said. “He was up on his feet, and he even had a walker. He had feeling in both of his limbs.”

When the filmmakers involved in the Heston film heard about the problem with his legs, “They said there was another part he could do in a wheelchair if he wanted to,” Davis-Olf said. “I encouraged him. I said, ‘Richard, you’re strong and powerful.’ He said, ‘I am going to, Diane. I’ll be on my feet by the turn of the year.’

“I talked to him two weeks ago,” she added. “He said he was fine. He called me ‘Little One.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, Little One, I’m going to be fine.’ ”

Diamond Farnsworth, also a successful stuntman who currently works on the TV series “JAG,” said his dad never showed signs of depression. “I talked to him, and my sister [Melissa Farnsworth] talked to him about every other day. He had good days and bad days, but he would say, ‘I’m doing fine.’ ”

He Joked and Talked About Old Times

Veteran stuntman and fellow New Mexico rancher Loren Janes, who had known Farnsworth since the days they were stuntmen on “Spartacus,” said he talked to his friend for an hour the day before he died.

“He just talked and talked and had a great time,” Janes recalled. “He told jokes and talked about old times. He repeated two or three times how he wanted to thank me for being a loyal friend through the years and being there for him. I think it was his way of saying goodbye to me.”

Janes said Farnsworth was in excruciating pain at the end.

“He couldn’t keep food down, couldn’t walk. It was one of those things where you think, ‘We take better care of horses and dogs and animals than us.’ . . . He didn’t want to live screaming in pain for the rest of his life. He was not a coward. He didn’t want his children to suffer and figured it was time to go and didn’t want to put anybody out.”

“He had a strong will, but the last week the pain came back in his stomach and back,” Davis-Olf noted. “The cancer spread to his bones. It was only a question of time. The problem was, this man was in great, great pain. The last few days were unbearable. He could take pain, he had a bad hip anyway, but this was unbearable.”

But it was his life--not the sad circumstances of his final days--that his family and friends choose to remember.

Farnsworth’s wife Maggie died in 1985 after 38 years of marriage. She was the one who encouraged him to go after what became his breakthrough role in “Comes a Horseman.”

“He would not have taken the role if it had not been for my mom,” Diamond Farnsworth said, noting that his mom even coached him.

“Maggie had been gone 15 or 16 years, and he still wore the ring that she gave him,” Davis-Olf said. “Even though he had a wonderful woman in his life the last 12 years [fiancee Jewely Van Valin], he never forgot Maggie.”

There was also a dry wit to the man. Heston recalled the time a director sent a message to Farnsworth from about 50 yards away telling the actor he wanted to see him. Heston said Farnsworth remarked, “I can carry a message 50 yards without writin’ it down.”

Farnsworth’s legacy also lives on at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. James Nottage, vice president and chief curator, said the actor was a frequent visitor who donated items to four sections of the museum, including the costume he wore in “The Grey Fox.”

“He would come to the museum and people would always recognize him,” Nottage said. “He was gracious and open to people who came up to say, ‘Hi.’ He was an everyday kind of guy who met with great success in Hollywood.”