A peasant is a person or family that depends economically on farming of land. Peasants typically make up the majority of the agricultural labor force in a pre-industrial society.
The word peasant is sometimes used as an insult by those townsfolk who consider themselves superior.
... His most famous role is that of the cranky professor forced to stay immobile because of a broken leg in 1942's The Man Who Came to Dinner[?], which he had performed ...