Dustin Farnum The Light Of The Western Stars Las Moras Ranch Pima County Arizona 1918-2014 #1 Acrylic Print

After a great success in a number of stage roles, in 1914 Farnum landed his first film role in the movie 'Soldiers of Fortune,' and later in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Squaw Man.' Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the biggest stars of the genre.

Contemporary actor Dustin Hoffman was named after him.

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...