Robert Forster
His Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Jackie Brown was just the beginning of a phenomenal resurgence for Robert Forster. He had described his career as having A five year upwards first act and a twenty-five year sliding second act, but since his nomination has worked non-stop in a prestigious slate of projects for film and television. He has co-starred in both major studio fare and artistic independent films.
Robert™s latest piece of work is Miramax™s Cursed in which he co-stars, the film is directed by Wes Craven and will be released in early 2004. Forster also co-starred with Angela Basset and James Spader in MGM™s sci-fi blockbuster Supernova, and can be seen in Me, Myself and Irene, co-starring with Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger. He also recently completed All the Rage, joining an all-star cast including Joan Allen, Gary Sinise and Andre Braugher. This in not to mention The Altoona Riding Club in which he stars as a traveling salesman who is forced into mentoring his young replacement played by Donnie Wahlberg. Forster also served as a co-executive producer on the film, something he hasn™t done since his 1986 film Hollywood Harr. In addition, he can be heard reading the new best-selling book, The Hit Man, for Dove Audio.
He co-starred in both the independent film Outside Ozon, and the updated versions of Alfred Hitchcock™s Psycho, and Rear Window. He also completed work on two independent films; Family Tree, and The Magic of Marciano, co-starring Nastassja Kinski.
In 1966, Forster blazed on the scene in his debut film Reflections in a Golden-Eye, co-starring with Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Directed by John Huston. He followed this in 1968 with the seminal film Medium Cool by Haskell Wexler, in which he played a TV newsman whose carefully guarded objectivity is undercut by the events at the Democratic convention in Chicago. He continued to do good work in less prominent films, and also starred in several television series including the noir series Banyon, which according to Forster was filled with fast cars and faster women.
Forster always felt that if he persisted, someday a young hotshot filmmaker, familiar with his work, would create a role for him. What he did™t realize was there would be two young directors, anxious to cast him. One was Quentin Tarantino, who had wanted him for two earlier films, but then insisted that Forster play the bail-bondsman inJackie Brown with Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson. The second young director was Englishman Paul Chart, who wrote the role of Dr. Jake Nyman in the thriller American Perfekt with Forster in mind. The film, also starring Amanda Plummer, David Thewlis and Paul Sorvino, is now being released in Canada and England, with the US release expected later this year.
A native of Rochester, N.Y., Forster began his acting career in local community theater. Moving to New York City in 1965, he made his professional debut in the two-character Broadway production of Mrs. Dally Has A Lover. His other stage credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and off-Broadway productions of Twelve Angry Men, The Sea Horse, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo™s Nest.
Over the years, he has done consistently good work in small films, which include stand-out performances in The Don is Dead, Stunts, Avalanche,Alligator, and Delta Force.
On television, Forster most recently guest starred in Huff and starred in Karen Sisco and can be seen starring in three other series: Banyo, Nakia, and Once A Hero. He appeared in several tele-films including Death Squad, Standing Tall, The Clone, and an Emmy Award winning episode of Police Story. In 1986, Forster produced and directed Hollywood Harry, a detective film spoof, in which he starred with his daughter Katherine (then age 14).
During the last few years, he has created an actors workshop, and been in demand as a motivational speaker. You can™t give up, Forster tells young actors.If you have a good attitude, always do your best work, and hang in there, you can win in the late innings. But it does help to have a Quentin Tarantino out there as one of your big fans.