Richard Farnsworth

Richard Farnsworth has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. Longtime lover Martin Hensler, 30 years his junior, died just a few months before Sir John. He is interred with his wife in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Instead of being rejected by the public, he got a standing ovation at his next stage appearance, and the roller-coaster to de-criminalise homosexuality in England and Wales began. Having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Farnsworth committed suicide by shooting himself at his ranch in Lincoln, New Mexico. He was convicted of "lewd behaviour" (cottaging) in 1953. In 1979 Farnsworth was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Comes a Horseman and in 2000 he was nominated for Best Actor for The Straight Story. He was knighted in the 1953 coronation honours, became a Companion of Honour in 1977 and was admitted to the Order of Merit in 1996.

Farnsworth's career was largely in Western films, although he did appear in the television miniseries Roots and in 1985 he appeared in the Canadian miniseries Anne of Green Gables. He won an Academy Award for his supporting role as a sardonic butler in the 1981 comedy Arthur, starring Dudley Moore, and his performance in Shine (1996) was critically acclaimed. He received his first credit, as "Dick Farnsworth", in Texas Across the River in 1966. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was jokingly said that he was prepared to do almost anything for his art. Born in Los Angeles, California, he began his film career as a stunt man, performing several horse riding stunts in such films as the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races at the age of 17. As he aged, Gielgud began to adapt more to changing fashions in the theatre, appearing in plays by Harold Pinter. Richard Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 - October 6, 2000) was an American actor. Unlike Olivier, he remained primarily a stage actor, and so the rivalry between them was minimal.

His film roles included: Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister (1940), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1952), and George, Duke of Clarence to Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955). Although he began to appear in British films as early as the 1930s, he would not make an impact in the medium until the last decades of his life. His Hamlet of 1936 was particularly admired. He starred and directed in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions at Stratford-upon-Avon.

He trained at RADA and had his initial success as a stage actor in classical roles. John Gielgud was born in Kensington in London, and had a head start in the theatrical profession, being a great-nephew of Ellen Terry. Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM CH (April 14, 1904–May 21, 2000) was an English theatre and film actor, regarded by many as one of the greatest of his time.