https://www.sfchronicle.com/movies/article/Robert-Forster-actor-whose-career-revived-with-14518484.php
Robert Forster, actor whose career revived with ‘Jackie Brown,’ dies By Lindsey Bahr Oct. 13, 2019 LOS ANGELES — Robert Forster, the handsome and omnipresent character actor who got a career resurgence and Oscar nomination for playing bail bondsman Max Cherry in “Jackie Brown,” died Friday. He was 78. Publicist Kathie Berlin said he died of brain cancer after a brief illness. He was at home in Los Angeles surrounded by family, including his children and partner Denise Grayson. Condolences poured in on social media. Bryan Cranston called Forster a “lovely man and a consummate actor” in a tweet. The two met on the 1980 film “Alligator” and then worked together again on the television show “Breaking Bad” and its spin-off film, “El Camino,” which started Friday on Netflix. “I never forgot how kind and generous he was to a young kid just starting out in Hollywood,” Cranston wrote. His “Jackie Brown” co-star Samuel L. Jackson tweeted that Forster was “truly a class act/Actor!!” A native of Rochester, N.Y., Forster stumbled into acting when in college, intending to be a lawyer, he followed a fellow female student he was trying to talk to into an auditorium where “Bye Bye Birdie” auditions were being held. He would be cast in that show, that fellow student would become his wife with whom he had three daughters, and it would start him on a new trajectory as an actor. A fortuitous role in the 1965 Broadway production “Mrs. Dally Has a Lover” put him on the radar of Darryl Zanuck, who signed him to a studio contract. He would soon make his film debut in the 1967 John Huston film “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” which starred Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. Forster would go on to star in Haskell Wexler’s documentary-style Chicago classic “Medium Cool” and the detective television series “Banyon.” It was an early high point that he would later say was the the map. Tarantino created the role of Max Cherry with Forster in mind — the actor had unsuccessfully auditioned for a part in “Reservoir Dogs,” but the director promised not to forget him. In a 2018 interview with Fandor, Forster recalled that when given the script, he told Tarantino, “I’m sure they’re not going to let you hire me.” Tarantino replied: “I hire anybody I want.” “And that’s when I realized I was going to get another shot at a career,” Forster said. “He gave me a career back, and the last 14 years have been fabulous.” The performance opposite Pam Grier became one of the more heartwarming Hollywood comeback stories, earning him his first and only the map. Tarantino created the role of Max Cherry with Forster in mind — the actor had unsuccessfully auditioned for a part in “Reservoir Dogs,” but the director promised not to forget him. In a 2018 interview with Fandor, Forster recalled that when given the script, he told Tarantino, “I’m sure they’re not going to let you hire me.” Tarantino replied: “I hire anybody I want.” “And that’s when I realized I was going to get another shot at a career,” Forster said. “He gave me a career back, and the last 14 years have been fabulous.” The performance opposite Pam Grier became one of the more heartwarming Hollywood comeback stories, earning him his first and only Academy Award nomination. He lost the golden statuette to Robin Williams, who won that year for “Good Will Hunting.” After “Jackie Brown,” he worked consistently and at a decidedly higher level than during the “slump,” appearing in films such as “Mulholland Drive” from director David Lynch, “Me, Myself and Irene,” “The Descendants,” “Olympus Has Fallen” and “What They Had,” and in television shows including “Breaking Bad” and the “Twin Peaks” revival. He said he loved trying out comedy as Tim Allen’s father in “Last Man Standing.” He’ll appear later this year in the Steven Spielberg-produced Apple+ series “Amazing Stories.” Even in his down days, Forster always considered himself lucky. “You learn to take whatever jobs there are and make the best you can out of whatever you’ve got. And anyone in any walk of life, if they can figure that out, has a lot better finish than those who cannot stand to take a picture that doesn’t pay you as much or isn’t as good as the last one,” he told IndieWire in 2011. “Attitude is everything.” Forster is survived by his four children, four grandchildren and Grayson, his partner of 16 years. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/a37407b5-87f5-47f3-b1d5-f0a1ae84c4e5%40googlegroups.com.
