Victor French

Victor Edwin French (December 4, 1934 – June 15, 1989) was an American actor and director. He is remembered for roles on the television programs Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, and Carter Country. Early career French was born in Santa Barbara, California, to an Armenian mother, Nellie Louise Cowles, and Ted French, an actor and stuntman who appeared in Westerns in the 1940s. French later appeared with his father in one episode of Gunsmoke, "Prime of Life", and another episode, "The Wishbone", where he was credited as "Victor Frence", both in 1966. Ted French died in 1978. French appeared in the war film The Quick and the Dead (1963), which was produced by the theatre arts department of Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys, which Victor French attended. Also in 1963, he appeared as one of the "Spencer brothers" in the movie that was a forerunner of the television series The Waltons titled Spencer's Mountain starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. Both the movie and the series were based upon the same novel by Earl Hamner Jr. Like his father, French began his television career as a stuntman in mostly Westerns and anthology shows. He guest-starred in 39 television series. Though he had an uncredited role as an office clerk in the film The Magnificent Seven, French's first real Western role was the 1961 episode "The Noose" of the syndicated series Two Faces West. French was cast as Larrimore in the episode "Fargo" on the ABC/Warner Bros. Western series The Dakotas.