Victor French

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Victor French

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.

His father Ted French and grandfather Charles K. French were both actors. 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." Charles French appeared in many films through the 1940's. He died in 1952. Ted French died in 1978.

After years of heavy smoking, he died of lung cancer on June 15, 1989 in Los Angeles, California. French was 54 years old.

Saddened by the loss, French's longtime co-star and friend Michael Landon (who would later succumb to pancreatic cancer in 1991, also at age 54) abruptly ended the Highway to Heaven program.

In 1998, French was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.