Victor French was born on the 4th of December 1934 in Santa Barbara, California. His father, Ted French, was a stuntman and popular western film actor in the 1940s. Victor looked up to his father in a lot of things and aspired to be an actor too.
Just like his father, he began his acting career as a stuntman, appearing in anthology shows and western films. He was a guest star in several TV Series but his first official role was in an episode of the series, Two Faces West: The Noose in 1961. French later got his chance to act alongside his father in the film The Quick and The Dead (1963) which was produced by Los Angeles Valley College’s Theatre Arts department, the same school the young boy attended. Ted and Victor also appeared side by side in an episode of Gunsmoke: Prime of Life in 1966.
Victor French went on to appear more than 20 times in the Gunsmoke series in different roles, mostly as a crook or a gunman. Throughout his career in the industry, he featured in seventeen films, forty-seven TV series and worked as a director 8 different projects, including movies and television.
Some of his notable works include his role as Mr. Edwards in the series Little House on the Prairie (1974). French had previously met actor Michael Landon when they both appeared in a few episodes of Bonanza. The pair became very close friends before going ahead to co-star in Little House on the Prairie (1974-1977, 1981-1984) and Highway to Heaven (1984-1989).
Victor late chose to leave Little House to appear on his own show, Carter Country (1977 to 1979). Other notable works of his include Charro (1969), Get Smart (1965-1966), Tarzan (1966), Daniel Boone (1967, 1969, 1970), Mannix (1970), The Hero (1966), Kung Fu (1973), Mission Impossible (1971), The Other (1972), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), and Fame (1984) just to mention a few.
Victor French is one of the founding members of “Company of Angels” in Los Angeles alongside Leonard Nimoy. The company affords actors the opportunity to work on their craft without commercial constraints. He left the company in the mid-1970s and began to teach acting privately. He was an exceptional teacher whose service was highly sought after, thus prompting him to take on students only by referrals.
French’s brilliance as a director was seen when he won the Critics Circle Award for directing “12 Angry Men” in the LA Theatre. He also directed 18 episodes of Little House on the Praire, 12 episodes on Highway to Heaven and 5 episodes on Gunsmoke. He was posthumously inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame in 1998 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City.
Was He Married?
Victor French was married and divorced twice. He first married Judith Schenz in 1959 and divorced her in the 1970s. During their time together, they had 3 children; Victor Jr., who was born in 1960, and twins girls Tracy and Kelly who were born in 1962. His next marriage was to actress Julie Cobb in 1976 but the marriage lasted for just two years.
