Richard Farnsworth makes a cowboy look as though he has spent his life doing the work. We value his physical assurance and understatement, though his films seldom ask him to stray far from familiar rural characters.
Fi1m perspective
In Misery (1990), Richard Farnsworth's Buster has the useful quality of seeming entirely suited to his job as sheriff. He does not need to make authority conspicuous; the quiet manner is enough. Rob Reiner's thriller belongs to Kathy Bates and James Caan, and Farnsworth is valuable because he does not compete with their intensity. We felt reassured by Buster's quiet authority because the writer's captivity is so frightening. It is a small pleasure, but it tells us why such casting matters.
That ease had a practical foundation: more than thirty years of stunt work and long experience with horses before substantial acting parts arrived. Comes a Horseman (1978), in which he played Dodger, supplied the breakthrough. The Grey Fox (1982) then gave him a leading role as ageing stagecoach robber Bill Miner. The horsemanship helps, but his understatement keeps us watching the man rather than merely admiring the riding.
His films do return to the same sorts of men, and the familiarity can do some of the work for him. Matthew Cuthbert, the gentle adoptive father figure in Anne of Green Gables (1985), fits readily beside the cowboys and lawmen. But Misery benefits from that ready credibility: a supporting part does not need to demonstrate everything an actor might be able to do. Our reservation about Reiner's film is its thin treatment of authorship, not the conviction of the performances.
David Lynch gives him room to sustain a leading performance in The Straight Story (1999), his final role. As Alvin Straight, undertaking an elderly man's lawnmower journey, he makes determination persuasive through plain speech and restraint. There is enough stubbornness in that dignity to keep it from becoming merely soothing. Start with Misery for the supporting actor, then try Lynch's film for an evening spent at Farnsworth's pace.
Biography
Richard Farnsworth (1920–2000) was an American actor and stuntman. He began working in films as a stunt performer and extra in the late 1930s and continued in that role for more than three decades before moving into speaking parts.
He received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Comes a Horseman (1978) and Best Actor for The Straight Story (1999). Other notable performances include roles in The Grey Fox (1982), Anne of Green Gables (1985) and Misery (1990), in which he played Sheriff Buster.
