Oscar Profile #466: Robert Forster

Born July 13, 1941 in Rochester, New York, Robert Forster was the son of an animal trainer for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, wo later became an executive for a banking supply company, and his wife. His parents divorced in 1949.

Forster first became interested in acting while performing in school plays in his local high school. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Rochester University in 1964. He made his Broadway debut opposite Arlene Francis in 1965’s Mrs. Dally Has a Lover and his film debut in John Huston’s 1967 film, Reflections in a Golden Eye with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor, in-between which he married first wife June with whom he would have three daughters. He also had a son born from a previous relationship in 1965.

After major supporting roles in Robert Mulligan’s 1968 film, The Stalking Moon with Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint and George Cukor’s 1969 film, Justine with Anouk Aimée and Dirk Bogarde, he was given the starring role in Haskell Wexler’s 1969 film, Medium Cool opposite Verna Bloom.

With starring roles in two 1970 films, Pieces of Dreams opposite Lauren Hutton and Cover Me Babe opposite Sondra Locke, Forster seemed to have a lucrative scree career ahead of him, but neither film was a major success and he next found himself playing the title role in the 1971-73 TV detective series, Banyon with Joan Blondell and Richard Jaeckel in principal support. In 1974, he had the title role in a second TV series, Nakia and from 1975-77 he was prominently featured in the Police Story anthology series.

Having been divorced from his first wife in 1975, Forster married second wife Zivia in 1978 from whom he would become divorced in 1980.

By 1978, roles were hard to come by but Forster kept going, taking roles where he could find them in such films as 1978’s Avalanche, 1979’s The Black Hole, 1980’s Alligator and so on. Between 1986 and 1995 his two most prominent roles were his guest appearances on TV’s Murder, She Wrote.

Quentin Tarantino resurrected his career with a major supporting role in 1997’s Jackie Brown which earned him the Kansas City Film Critics’ Best Supporting Actor award and an Oscar nomination.

With his career back on track, Forster was seldom out of work for the remainder of his life. Among the films in which he appeared in his later career were David Lynch’s 2001 film, Mulholland Drive; Renny Harlin’s 2007 film Cleaner; Alexander Payne’s 2011 film, The Descendants; Antoine Fuqua’s 2013 film, Olympus Has Fallen; Fuqua’s 2016 film, London Has Fallen, Elizabeth Chomko’s 2018 film, What They Had and Vince Gilligin’s 2019 film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie which premiered on Netflix October 11, 2019 the day Forster died from a brain tumor.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE (1967), directed by John Huston

Huston’s most controversial film, adapted from Carson McCullers’ novel, gave Forster a much talked about supporting role for his screen debut. Marlon Brando, in a role intended for Montgomery Clift who died before filming began, plays a latent gay army officer who becomes obsessed with handsome private Forster. Forster, for his part, like to ride his horse in the buff and stroke Brando’s wife Elizabeth Taylor’s lingerie in her bedroom. Taylor meanwhile is having an affair with Brando’s superior officer Brian Keith whose wife Julie Harris is having an affair with Zorro David, her effeminate Filipino houseboy.

MEDIUM COOL (1969), directed by Haskell Wexler

Oscar winning cinematographer Wexler’s first dramatic film as a director was filmed in part during the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago where the riots that they break out in the street follow the film’s screenplay. Forster gives a bravura performance as a reporter assigned to the convention with Peter Bonerz as his photographer. The subplot involves Forster’s relationship with a downtrodden woman from Appalachia and her teenage son brilliantly played by Verna Bloom and Harold Blankenship. Wexler received a Best Director nomination from the DGA that failed to translate to an Oscar nod.

JACKIE BROWN (1997), directed by Quentin Tarentino

Tarantino provide both Pam Grier in the title role of a middle-aged airline stewardess who outsmarts both the gangsters and the law and Forster as her bail bondsman with comeback roles that reestablished their careers. With a cast that included such big names as Samuel K. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton, actors who were used to garnering the best notices in the films they were in, no one was expecting Forster to walk away with the film’s best notices. The result was the Best Supporting Actor of the Kansas City Film Critics and the first and sadly, only Oscar nomination of his long career.

THE DESCENDANTS (2011), directed by Alexander Payne

Forster was nominated for a SAG award as a member of an ensemble that included George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard and Judy Greer in the Oscar nominated film in which he plays Clooney’s father-in-law who has an unforgettable scene with his comatose daughter. Clooney would be nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar as would be the film and writer-director Payne. Woodley received a Golden Globe nomination for playing Clooney’s daughter and Forster’s granddaughter.

WHAT THEY HAD (2018), directed by Elizabeth Chomko

This under-appreciated film contains what was arguably Forster’s best performance as the husband of Alzheimer’s Disease patient Blythe Danner. Danner as well as Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon as their grown children also turn in commendable performances, but Forster is especially fine as the physically ill husband risking his life to care for his mentally deficient wife. Inexplicably the film failed to win any major awards or even nominations, but it was honored with AARP for Grownups nominations for Best Grownup Love Story, Best Supporting Actor Forster and Best Supporting Actress Danner.