Franklyn Farnum

• Birth name:

  William Smith

• Date of Birth:

  4 July 1878 Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• Height:

  5' 11" (1.80 m)

Boston-born actor Franklyn Farnum was on the vaudeville stage 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 The 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, b... more

Boston-born actor Franklyn Farnum was on the vaudeville stage 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 The 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 50s. Largely forgotten today, he is not related to silent actors and brothers Dustin and William Farnum. One of his three wives was the ill-fated actress Alma Rubens whom he was briefly married to in 1918. Farnum passed away from cancer in 1961.