Robert Forster

Robert Forster, born Robert Wallace Foster Jr. on July 13, 1941, in Rochester, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned more than five decades on stage, screen, and television. His mother was Italian American and his father was of English and Irish descent. Forster earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester, where participation in college theater productions led him to pursue acting professionally. He modified the spelling of his surname, adding an "R" to distinguish himself from another Screen Actors Guild member named Robert Foster.

Forster made his Broadway debut in 1965 in Mrs. Dally Had a Lover, appearing alongside Arlene Francis and Ralph Meeker. He returned to Broadway in 1973, taking on the role of Stanley Kowalski opposite Julie Harris in a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. During his stage years he also appeared in productions of Come Blow Your Horn, The Big Knife, and The Glass Menagerie, and played Juror No. 3 in the first New York staging of Twelve Angry Men at the Queens Playhouse. He additionally directed for the Rochester Community Theatre and toured in a stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with further stage work including The Sea Horse in Louisville.

His film career began with a significant early opportunity when director John Huston cast him as Private L.G. Williams in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), a production that also starred Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando. The following year he appeared as part-Indian Army scout Nick Tana in Robert Mulligan's The Stalking Moon (1968), billed third after Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint. Forster then took the starring role of television news reporter John Cassellis in Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969), a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film that became a landmark of the New Hollywood movement. He also appeared in a supporting capacity in George Cukor's Justine (1969), played a tormented priest in Pieces of Dreams (1970), and portrayed a student filmmaker in Cover Me Babe (1970).

Television work during this period included guest appearances on N.Y.P.D., Judd for the Defense, and Premiere, the latter of which also featured Dustin Hoffman and Sally Kellerman. Forster starred in the pilot for the series Banyon, playing a private detective in late-1930s Los Angeles, which was subsequently picked up as a series running from 1971 to 1973. After Banyon's cancellation, he described his career as entering a prolonged decline. He starred in the television movie The Death Squad (1974) and then in the short-lived series Nakia (1974), in which he played a Navajo detective. Guest appearances on Medical Story, Gibbsville, and Police Story followed, along with lead roles in the television movies Royce (1976), The City (1977), Standing Tall, and The Darker Side of Terror (1979).

Forster transitioned into lower-budget theatrical features during the late 1970s, including Stunts (1977), Avalanche (1978) opposite Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow, and a key supporting role in Disney's The Black Hole (1979), in which he played Captain Dan Holland. He starred in Lewis Teague's Alligator (1980) as Detective David Madison. Throughout the 1980s he continued working across both television and low-budget film productions, appearing in Vigilante (1983), Walking the Edge (1985), and The Delta Force (1986), in which he played Abdul Rafai. In 1985 he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Hollywood Harry, financing the project with his personal savings. He also appeared in the miniseries Goliath Awaits (1981) and in episodes of Magnum, P.I., Tales from the Darkside, and Hotel, among others. The early 1990s brought a sustained run of low-budget productions including Peacemaker (1990), Diplomatic Immunity (1991), 29th Street (1991), American Yakuza (1993), Original Gangstas (1996), and American Perfekt (1997), alongside television appearances on Jake and the Fatman, Silk Stalkings, Murder, She Wrote, and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Forster's career was substantially revitalized when Quentin Tarantino cast him as bail bondsman Max Cherry in Jackie Brown (1997). The performance earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and restored his standing in the industry. Subsequent credits included Mulholland Drive, Supernova, Me, Myself & Irene (2000) as Colonel Partington, Human Nature (2001), Confidence (2003), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Firewall (2006), and The Descendants (2011), in which he played Scott Thorson. He portrayed General Edward Clegg in Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and reprised that role in London Has Fallen (2016). He played Norbert Everhardt in What They Had (2018) and Sheriff Hadley in The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020).

On television, Forster appeared as Arthur Petrelli in the NBC series Heroes from 2007 to 2008 and portrayed Ed Galbraith, known as "The Disappearer," in the Breaking Bad episode "Granite State," a role for which he won the Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television. He reprised the character in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) and in Better Call Saul (2020). He also appeared as Karen Sisco's father in the series Karen Sisco from 2003 to 2004, and had a prominent role in Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). Forster played Bud Baxter, father to Tim Allen's character, on the comedy series Last Man Standing. He had been the first choice to play Sheriff Harry S. Truman in the original Twin Peaks but declined due to a prior commitment. In addition to his acting work, Forster was active as a motivational speaker and recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's Hip-Hop Literacy campaign, encouraging the reading of Elmore Leonard's work, including Rum Punch, the novel adapted as Jackie Brown.

Robert Forster died on October 11, 2019.