Apocalypse Now Actor Frederic Forrest Has Died At 86
Character actor Frederic Forrest, best known for his work with Francis Ford Coppola in films like "Apocalypse Now" and "The Conversation," has died at the age of 86, Variety reports. News of the actor's passing first came from singer and actress Bette Midler, who posted a death announcement to Twitter Friday night, thanking the actor's fans for their support and celebrating the life of a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being." Midler, who co-starred opposite Forrest in 1979's "The Rose," concluded, "I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace."
Forrest, who was born in Texas in 1936, performed off-Broadway in the anti-Vietnam War play "Viet Rock" in the 1960s, but it was another role in a searingly critical war story that would eventually be his claim to fame. In 1979, the actor embodied the unforgettable supporting role of Jay "Chef" Hicks, a member of the crew headed upriver to track down Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in the midst of the Vietnam War in "Apocalypse Now." Unlike the film's more jingoistic characters, Chef is blatantly terrified by the situation he finds himself in, but his ambivalence isn't enough to save his head. His death kicks off the acclaimed film's dark-hearted climax.
The actor found memorable success in other Coppola-made films too, playing one-half of the wiretapped couple in "The Conversation," noir author Dashiell Hammett in "Hammett," and a mechanic who's desperately in love in "One From The Heart." The pair worked together for over a decade, but Coppola is far from the only legendary filmmaker with whom Forrest worked. The actor also appeared in films by John Frankenheimer, Costa-Gavras, Dario Argento, Dennis Hopper, and Wim Wenders, among many others.
A character actor who could play every type of role
In 1979, Forrest hit a major career milestone with "The Rose," a tragic drama in which Midler played a doomed musician reminiscent of Janis Joplin. Midler and Forrest both earned Oscar nominations for their turns in the film, in which Forrest played an AWOL army man turned limo driver for the troubled star Mary Rose Foster. As Noel Murray wrote for The Dissolve in 2015, Forrest's role "strikes a tricky balance between marveling at Rose's vivacity and being repulsed by how far out of bounds she goes." The actor ultimately lost the Best Supporting Actor trophy to "Being There" actor Melvyn Douglas, but won an award from the National Society of Film Critics the same year.
Other memorable Forrest roles include a turn as a charming, wisdom-sharing hippie dad in Martha Coolidge's "Valley Girl," a suspicious, obsessive psychologist in Argento's "Trauma," and an unhinged Nazi memorabilia collector in Joel Schumacher's "Falling Down." A character actor who could embody both the slimiest villains and the sweetest supporting players with equal talent, Forrest had no shortage of indelible roles across his 4-decade film and TV career.
Actor Barry Primus, a friend of Forrest's, told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor passed away in his home in Santa Monica on Friday, and had been ill for some time.