Dustin Lancy Farnum (May 27, 1874 – July 3, 1929) was an American singer, dancer, and actor on the stage and in silent films.[1] Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the bigger stars of the genre.
Early life and education
He was born the eldest of three boys on May 27, 1874, in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire,[1] 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.[2][3] 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,[4] and later in Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man.[5]
The Littlest Rebel (November 14, 1911 – January 1912)
Arizona (April 28, 1913 – June 1913)
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.[6]
