{{short description|American actor, singer and dancer}} {{Infobox person |name = Dustin Farnum |image = Farnum 001.JPG |caption = Farnum in 1914 |birth_name = Dustin Lancy Farnum |birth_date = {{birth date|1874|5|27}} |birth_place = Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1929|7|3|1874|5|27}} |death_place = New York City, U.S. |occupation = Silent film actor, singer, vaudeville performer |years_active = 1914–1926 |family = William Farnum<br>(brother)<br>Marshall Farnum<br>(brother) |relatives = |spouse = {{plainlist| *{{marriage|Mary Cromwell|1909|1924|end=divorced}} *{{marriage|Winifred Kingston|1924|<!-- Omission per Template:Marriage instructions -->}} }} }}
'''Dustin Lancy Farnum''' (May 27, 1874 – July 3, 1929) was an American singer, dancer, and actor on the stage and in silent films.<ref name=obit/> Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the bigger stars of the genre. He has been called ""the Clark Gable of the silent screen".<ref name="InHollywood">{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Erskine |title=In Hollywood |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/684188686/ |access-date=May 12, 2025 |agency=The Whittier News |date=July 31, 1944}}</ref>
==Early life and education== He was born the eldest of three boys on May 27, 1874, in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire,<ref name=obit/> the older brother of actor William Farnum, whom he closely resembled, and the lesser known silent film director Marshall Farnum (died 1917). He married Mary Cromwell in 1909, and they divorced in 1924.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dustin Farnum To Marry. Has Taken Out License to Wed Mary Conwell, His Leading Woman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1909/03/09/archives/dustin-farnum-to-marry-has-taken-out-license-to-wed-mary-conwell.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 9, 1909}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Dustin Farnum Gets a Divorce |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/08/20/archives/dustin-farnum-gets-a-divorce.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 20, 1924}}</ref> He then married Winifred Kingston; they were the parents of radio actress Estelle "Dustine" Runyon (1925–1983).
==Career== After great success in a number of stage roles, Farnum landed his first film role in 1914 in the movie ''Soldiers of Fortune'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Soldiers of Fortune |website=American Film Institute |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18167-SOLDIERS-OF-FORTUNE |access-date=March 18, 2023}}</ref> and later in Cecil B. DeMille's ''The Squaw Man''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Squaw Man |website=American Film Institute |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/2124-THE-SQUAWMAN |access-date=March 18, 2023}}</ref>
==Death== He died of kidney failure on July 3, 1929, at Post Graduate Hospital (now NYU Langone Health) in Manhattan, aged 55.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|title=Dustin Farnum Dies After Long Illness. Stage and Screen Star, 55, Was Born in Hampton Beach, Me., of Theatrical Parents. Debut in Stock In 1897. He Scored First Big Success in 'The Virginian'. With Brother William in 'The Littlest Rebel'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/07/05/archives/dustin-farnum-dies-after-long-illness-stage-and-screen-star-55-was.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 5, 1929 }}</ref>
==Filmography== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *''Soldiers of Fortune'' (1914) *''The Squaw Man'' (1914) *''The Lightning Conductor'' (1914) *''The Virginian'' (1914) *''When We Were Young'' (1914) *''Cameo Kirby'' (1914) *''Captain Courtesy'' (1915) *''The Iron Strain'' (1916) *''The Gentleman from Indiana'' (1916) *''The Call of the Cumberlands'' (1916) *''Ben Blair'' (1916) * ''David Garrick'' (1916) *''Davy Crockett'' (1916) *''The Parson of Panamint'' (1916) *''The Intrigue'' (1916) *''A Son of Erin'' (1916) *''Durand of the Bad Lands'' (1917) * ''The Spy'' (1917) *''North of Fifty Three'' (1917) *''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1917) *''Ready Money Ringfield'' (1918) *''The Light of Western Stars'' (1918) *''A Man in the Open'' (1919) *''A Man's Fight'' (1919) * ''The Corsican Brothers'' (1920) *''Big Happiness'' (1921) *''The Primal Law'' (1921) *''The Devil Within'' (1921) *''Iron to Gold'' (1922) *''Strange Idols'' (1922) * ''Oath-Bound'' (1922) *''Trail of the Axe'' (1922) * ''The Yosemite Trail'' (1922) *''While Justice Waits'' (1922) *''Three Who Paid'' (1923) *''The Buster'' (1923) *''Bucking the Barrier'' (1923) *''The Man Who Won'' (1923) *''The Grail'' (1923) * ''Kentucky Days'' (1923) * ''My Man'' (1924) *''The Flaming Frontier'' (1926) {{div col end}}
==Broadway plays== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *''A Romance of Athlone'' (January 29, 1900 – March 3, 1900) *''Marcelle'' (October 1900) *''More Than Queen'' (October 30, 1900 – November 1900) *''The Virginian'' (Boston October 1903, New York January 5, 1904 – May 1904) *''The Ranger'' (September 1907) *''The Rector's Garden'' (March 1908) *''Cameo Kirby'' (December 20, 1909 – January 1910) *''The Silent Call'' (January 1911) *''The Squaw Man'' (January 9, 1911 – January 17, 1911) *''The Littlest Rebel'' (November 14, 1911 – January 1912) *''Arizona'' (April 28, 1913 – June 1913) {{div col end}}
==Legacy== According to an interview in the April 1975 edition of ''Playboy'', Dustin Hoffman was named after Farnum. Additionally, according to an interview on January 16, 2013, on ''Fresh Air with Terry Gross'' on NPR, Hoffman said his parents were expecting him to be a girl and did not have a boy's name ready. When his mother did have another boy, and was pressured to give him a name, she picked the name Dustin from a magazine the other lady in her room was reading, which featured Dustin Farnum on the cover.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2013/01/16/168799912/quartet-dustin-hoffman-behind-the-camera|title='Quartet': Dustin Hoffman, Behind the Camera|website=NPR }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Dustin Farnum}} *{{IMDb name|id=0267914|name=Dustin Farnum}} *{{IBDB name}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120805184240/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba14d9aa4 Dustin Farnum] at the British Film Institute *[http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/6651/dustin-farnum Literature on Dustin Farnum] *[https://vintoz.com/blogs/vintage-movie-resources/dustin-farnum-to-corsica-with-dusty ''To Corsica With “Dusty”'' (Motion Picture Magazine)]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Farnum, Dustin}} Category:1874 births Category:1929 deaths Category:19th-century American male singers Category:20th-century American male actors Category:American male dancers Category:American male film actors Category:American male silent film actors Category:American male stage actors Category:Deaths from kidney failure in New York (state) Category:Male actors from New Hampshire Category:Male Western (genre) film actors Category:People from Hampton, New Hampshire Category:Singers from New Hampshire Category:American vaudeville performers