Richard Farnsworth, 1920-2000

LINCOLN, N.M. (Reuters) - Actor Richard Farnsworth, nominated this year for an Academy Award for best actor for his role in "The Straight Story'' shot himself to death at his New Mexico home, police say.

The 80-year-old actor, who won the nomination for his portrayal of Alvin Straight, an elderly man who drove his lawnmower from Iowa to Wisconsin to see his dying brother, had terminal cancer, said Lincoln Sheriff Tom Sullivan. Sullivan said Friday that Farnsworth was found dead at the residence he shared with his companion, Jule Vanvalin.

"The lady who lives with him heard a gunshot a little after five p.m. tonight and she went into the room and saw him,'' Sullivan said. "She called a neighbor, who was one of my former deputies. ... He went over and found Mr. Farnsworth.''

"This was an obvious self-inflicted gunshot,'' Sullivan added.

Farnsworth's weathered face and crystal blue eyes earned him roles in some of Hollywood's most popular movies but aside from Straight, he was mostly relegated to supporting roles. He played the sheriff in "Misery'' in 1990 and had roles in ''The Getaway'' (1994), "Havana'' (1990), "The Natural'' (1984), and "Comes a Horseman'' (1978), for which he received a best-supporting actor Academy Award nomination.

In Canada, he was nominated for that country's best actor award for his role in the 1982 film, "The Gray Fox.'' Farnsworth was born on Sept. 1, 1920 in Los Angeles and began his film career at the age of 16 as a stuntman. For 40 years he doubled for Roy Rogers and other Western stars but gradually began earning roles in his own right (end Reuters).

The Natural was a milestone. I remember hearing that he did stunt work in the Marx Bros. classic A Day at the Races in... 1937! So he musta been about 17. More stunt work in The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), Red River (1948), The Wild One (1954), Spartacus (1960). Roles in Texas Across the River (1966) with Dean Martin and Joey Bishop, Monte Walsh (1970) with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance, Pocket Money (1972) with Lee Marvin and Paul Newman, The Cowboys (1972) and Rooster Cogburn (1975) both with John Wayne, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) with Eastwood, an Oscar Nomination in Comes a Horseman (1978) and in Tom Horn (1979) with Steve McQueen. Jane Fonda got him the part in Comes a Horsemen, she had met him years before when he had doubled for her father.

Then one day I was at the video store with Mom, I think. And somehow she had heard of this film, known as a "sleeper," at the time, and recommended it to me. I found it a bit slow at the time, but I was 14. It won Farnsworth acclaim and a Canadian Best Actor nomination (or win?). It was a Canadian film, and a western. Small budget, quiet and pretty.

The next time I noticed him, was when, I think, everyone noticed him and fell in love with him. What a sweet old man in The Natural (1984). The grandfather everyone wished for. Into the Night (1985) for Landis, a "Will Rogers impression" in The Two Jakes (1990). When Kathy Bates kills him, the sheriff, in Misery (1990), we lose all sympathy for her. In Havana (1990), a failed TV show with Natural co-star Wilford Brimley called "The Boys of Twilight", Slim Pickens' part in the grotesque Alec Baldwin remake of The Getaway. And finally a Best Actor Oscar Nomination for The Straight Story. If you haven't seen it, you should rent it. As much as I love Farnsworth, I still wanted Kevin Spacey to get it (he did). But now, sitting here, I would have loved to hear his acceptance speech (surely he knew about the cancer then).

He was really a beautiful man.