Francis X. Bushman - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Francis X. Bushman died from a heart attack, in Pacific Palisades, California, on August 23, 1966. He was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Somewhat fittingly, one of his last television appearances (filmed only weeks prior to his death) had been as a silent film collector menaced by the Riddler on the Batman TV show. After his death an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, with Bushman as "Old Man", was released in October 1966.

His son Ralph Everly Bushman (1903–1978) had a film career from the 1920s through the 1940s. 6'4" and good-looking, he was in over 40 films, often playing stuffy upper-class types or menacing gangsters. In Brown of Harvard (1926) he was cast against William Haines and Jack Pickford. He was often billed as "Francis X. Bushman, Jr." Another son, Bruce Bushman, was an art director and designer for Walt Disney's animation studio.

Francis Bushman's granddaughter, Barbara Bushman Quine, married actor Harry Morgan. In the season four M*A*S*H episode, "The Interview," Harry Morgan's character, Colonel Potter, refers to his glorious cavalry days as, "...the days of Douglas Fairbanks and Francis X. Bushman." A grandson, Pat Conway (1931–1981), the son of film director Jack Conway and Bushman's daughter, Virginia, starred on the ABC western television series Tombstone Territory.

Much of Bushman's silent film work has been lost to the ravages of film decomposition. Other than Messala in Ben-Hur, he is not well known for any other silent film role even to silent film buffs. Clips of parts of films may show up in the occasional silent film documentary. Thus it is difficult for modern film audiences to appreciate the full breadth of his silent film career.