Frederic Forrest, 86, Dies; Actor Known for ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘The Rose’

Frederic Forrest, who appeared in additional than 80 motion pictures and tv reveals in a profession that started within the Sixties, and who turned in maybe his two most memorable performances in the identical 12 months, 1979, in two very totally different movies — the romantic drama “The Rose” and the Vietnam War odyssey “Apocalypse Now” — died on Friday at his dwelling in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86.

His sister and solely fast survivor, Ginger Jackson, confirmed his dying. She stated he had been coping with congestive coronary heart failure.

Mr. Forrest started turning up on the levels of La MaMa and different Off and Off Off Broadway theaters in New York within the Sixties. In 1966, he was in “Viet Rock,” an antiwar rock musical by Megan Terry that was staged in Manhattan and in New Haven, Conn., and is commonly cited as a precursor to “Hair.”

In 1970, he moved to Los Angeles and, whereas working in a pizza restaurant, appeared in a showcase manufacturing on the Actors Studio West. The director Stuart Millar noticed him there and forged him in his first huge movie position, as a Ute Indian (although Mr. Forrest had solely a bit Native American blood) in “When the Legends Die,” starring reverse the veteran actor Richard Widmark. That movie, launched in 1972, put Mr. Forrest on the map.

“Forrest, a husky, strong-featured actor of great sensitivity who probably won’t escape comparisons with the early Brando, holds his own with Widmark,” Kevin Thomas wrote in a assessment in The Los Angeles Times.

Among these impressed with Mr. Forrest’s efficiency was Francis Ford Coppola, who forged him in “The Conversation” (1974), his examine of a surveillance professional performed by Gene Hackman. Five years later, Mr. Forrest was on a ship going up a river in the hunt for the mysterious Kurtz in Mr. Coppola’s harrowing “Apocalypse Now.”

Critics had been divided on the film as a complete, however Mr. Forrest’s portrayal of a personality often known as Chef (who finally loses his head, actually) was extensively praised. The movie was shot within the Philippines, an expertise Mr. Forrest discovered grueling.

“Because we were creating a surreal, dreamlike war, nightmare personal things began happening. Sometimes we would think we were losing our minds,” he instructed The New York Times in 1979. “I became almost catatonic in the Philippines. I could think of no reason to do anything.”

Less taxing was “The Rose,” during which Ms. Midler performed a Janis Joplin-like singer who self-destructs. Mr. Forrest portrayed a limousine driver and AWOL soldier who turned her romantic associate.

Mr. Forrest, Janet Maslin wrote in a assessment in The New York Times, “would be the surprise hit of the movie if Miss Midler didn’t herself have dibs on that position.” The position earned him his solely Oscar nomination, for greatest supporting actor. (Melvyn Douglas received that 12 months, for “Being There.”)

Mr. Forrest might need appeared poised at that time to turn out to be an A-list star. Yet although he labored steadily all through the Eighties and ’90s, he landed only some main roles, and people motion pictures didn’t do properly. His subsequent challenge with Mr. Coppola was “One From the Heart” (1981), a romance during which he and Teri Garr play a pair who cut up up and check out different companions. Critics savaged the movie.

He subsequent performed the title position in Wim Wenders’s “Hammett” (1982), a fictional story concerning the thriller author Dashiell Hammett, however that film had solely a restricted theatrical run. His later movies included “Tucker: The Man and His Dreams” (1988, one other Coppola challenge), “Cat Chaser” (1989) and “The Two Jakes” (1990), the ill-fated sequel to “Chinatown,” directed by Jack Nicholson. He was additionally in quite a few tv motion pictures, in addition to the 1989 mini-series “Lonesome Dove.” His most up-to-date movie credit score was a small half within the 2006 Sean Penn film “All the King’s Men.”

“This is a fickle town, no rhyme or reason to it,” he stated of Hollywood in 1979. ”By the time you go down the driveway to choose up your mail, you’re forgotten.”

Frederic Fenimore Forrest Jr. was born on Dec. 23, 1936, in Waxahachie, Texas, to Frederic and Virginia Allee (McSpadden) Forrest. His father ran a big wholesale greenhouse operation. Young Frederic performed 4 sports activities at Waxahachie High School and was named essentially the most good-looking boy within the senior class.

He graduated from Texas Christian University, with a level in tv and radio and a minor in theater, in 1960, the identical 12 months he married his school sweetheart, Nancy Ann Whittaker, although that marriage lasted solely three years. He moved to New York shortly after graduating and labored odd jobs whereas finding out appearing with Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner and different famous lecturers.

His early stage roles in New York included a hunky man in Ted Harris’s “Silhouettes,” which was staged on the Actors Playhouse in Manhattan in 1969. He reprised the position in Los Angeles the subsequent 12 months, after his transfer to the West Coast.

“Frederic Forrest is perfect as the lazy stud in what may be one of the sleepiest roles ever written — he never gets out of bed,” Margaret Harford wrote in The Los Angeles Times.

A second marriage, to the actress Marilu Henner in 1980, stemmed from a display screen check that 12 months for “Hammett” that included a kissing scene.

“Someone almost had to throw cold water on us,” Ms. Henner instructed The Toronto Star in 1993. “The tape is pretty wild.”

They married six months later, but that marriage, like his earlier one, lasted only three years. A third marriage also ended in divorce, Mr. Forrest’s sister, Ms. Jackson, said.

Barry Primus, an actor who worked with Mr. Forrest on “The Rose,” recalled his skill both onscreen and as a raconteur.

“Working with him was a treat and, for me, a learning experience,” he said in a statement. “It was absolutely enchanting to spend an evening hearing him tell stories. So much fun, and in its own way, a kind of performance art. There was a love in them that made you feel how crazy and wonderful it was to be alive.”

In a phone interview, Ms. Jackson said her brother was particularly pleased to have been able to bring their mother to the Academy Awards ceremony in 1980, when he was nominated for “The Rose.”

“It was so wonderful for her to be able to see that,” she said.