Victor French (December 4, 1934 - June 15, 1989) was an American actor.
Born in Santa Barbara, California, French costarred on the television series Little House on the Prairie (1974-1977, 1981-1983, 1984) as Isaiah Edwards and Highway to Heaven (1984-1989) as Mark Gordon. He also starred in Carter Country. He played the recurring character "Agent 44" in the series Get Smart! in 1965-1966, where he portrayed an undercover spy who showed up in the most unlikely of places (like a mailbox or a porthole in a boat).
His father Ted French was also an actor. Ted French was also a stuntman and appeared in westerns in the 1940's. He also appeared with his son Victor in one episode of Gunsmoke entitled "Prime Of Life" in 1966, as well as a war film in 1963 called "The Quick And The Dead." Ted French died in 1978.
Victor French made several appearances on Gunsmoke. One episode was "Blindman's Bluff" as a traveler who was shot and wounded then nursed back to health by a lonely woman. He had memory loss and ended up leaving at the end to try to find out what he lost.
After years of heavy smoking, Victor died of lung cancer on June 15, 1989 in Los Angeles, California. He was 54 years old.
In 1998, French was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Victor French was the son of a stuntman. His debut was a small role in "Lassie" (1954). He had his first experiences in western-films, where he always played the "bad guy." This changed with "Little House on the Prairie" (1974) (as Isaiah Edwards). In 1977, he left "Little House on the Prairie" (1974) to play in his own sitcom "Carter Country" (1977). He directed in LA Theaters and won the Crtics Circle Award for "12 Angry Men." In the 1980s, he declined to play "bad guys." Victor French died 1989 after finishing the last episode of "Highway to Heaven" (1984).
