Frederic Forrest has died. A prolific actor best known for his multiple collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola—most prominently in 1979’s Apocalypse Now—the Oscar-nominated Forrest was a regular in both television and film. Per Variety, his death was first reported today by Bette Midler, who starred with him in 1979’s The Rose. Forrest was 86.
Born in Texas in the 1930s, Forrest started out in the stage before making his way to film, starring in his first movie, Stuart Miller’s When The Legends Fall, in 1973. The next year, he scored the first of five roles he’d take on for Coppola, playing one half of a couple under intense surveillance and scrutiny in the paranoid thriller The Conversation. (A film he shares with Harrison Ford—who he’d later compete with for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.) Forrest’s other Coppola roles included parts in One From The Heart, Hammett, Tucker: The Man And His Dream, and, most notably, Apocalypse Now, where he played squad cook Hicks, who has a memorable freak-out in the midst of the film’s war-torn chaos.
Forrest’s most-recognized performance was in The Rose, where he starred opposite Midler as a limousine driver who is pulled into the chaos of her character’s rock-star lifestyle. Although the film pulled mixed reviews, Forrest was singled out for praise, gaining a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the part. Middler wrote of him on Twitter today, saying, “He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life.”
Forrest worked steadily throughout the 1980s and ’90s, appearing on television in a starring role in the first season of 21 Jump Street. His film roles from the period included small but eye-catching roles in movies like Lassie, Valley Girl, The Two Jakes, and Falling Down—where he gives a twitchy, deliberately ugly performance as easily the least sympathetic person Michael Douglas assaults during his rampage across L.A.
Forrest retired from acting in the mid-2000s; his final role was a small part in the 2006 Sean Penn adaptation of All The King’s Men. Coppola penned a tribute to him today, writing, “Freddie Forrest was a sweet, much beloved person, a wonderful actor and a good friend. His loss is heartbreaking to me.”
