Frederic Forrest and the Hard Knock Hollywood Life

The first word that comes to my mind when I think of Frederic Forrest is agita. That’s not to say that Forrest didn’t have many other tools in his actor’s box, but being a specialist at a sort of flinty crankiness was sort of his brand. His “resting” facial expression seemed to often say, “what now?”–the same way any of us might when going through a stretch of bad luck. Frederic Forrest’s countenance always seemed to be that of a man on a bad streak.

Forrest kicked around the late ‘60s and early ‘70s doing bit parts on film and one shots on serialized television. He got his first break by being cast as Mark, one half of the couple (along with Cindy Williams as Ann) that surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is listening in on in Francis Ford Coppola’s between Godfathers 1 and 2 classic paranoid thriller, 1974’s The Conversation. While the role wasn’t huge, it was absolutely integral to setting the stage for one of the finest films of the ‘70s. 

From there on, Forrest’s career followed forward in a hit and miss fashion. There are a number of forgettable films on his resume, but every now and then, Forrest would sink into a great role in a first class production and remind you how good he could be. 

In fact, Forrest had a pretty great run of top-level projects from 1979-1983. The National Society of Film Critics named him best supporting actor for his tremendous turn in another Coppola classic, 1979’s Apocalypse Now. To be singled out by the National Society for that film was no small acknowledgement, considering his competition for the award within Apocalypse Now itself was Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper and Marlon Brando. Not only that, but Forrest was in competition with himself thanks to his sterling supporting work in The Rose, (starring Bette Midler in a film loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin) also from 1979. The Academy took the safer choice, nominating Forrest for Best Supporting Actor for The Rose instead of Apocalypse Now. That being said, while much of The Rose was overheated melodrama, Forrest gave a very moving performance as Midler’s chauffeur who becomes her lover and tries, in vain, to save her from herself. Directed by Mark Rydell (also known for the very sentimental On Golden Pond), hits every emotional nail in the film with a sledgehammer, but no one can say that Forrest didn’t do his damndest to ground the film as much as any supporting performer could.

Forrest re-teamed with Coppola again for the director’s incredibly ambitious financial disaster, One From The Heart in 1981. The film was supposed to be a light romantic comedy, but Coppola went big with his vision, turning One From The Heart into a highly stylized musical with massive cost overruns. The film cost a staggering 27 million dollars (nearly 90 million in 2023 dollars) and flopped with both critics and audiences, being panned widely by the former, and ignored by the latter (the film grossed less than $630,000 at the time of its release). In the more than 40 years since One From The Heart’s commercial failure, the film has found a more fond reassessment. It’s a lovely film that doesn’t look like anything you’ve ever seen before, and the main players (Forrest, Nastassja Kinski, Terri Garr, and Raul Julia) couldn’t be more charming. 

Despite One From The Heart’s quick box office death, Forrest’s next role would give him the most sizable lead role of his career in Wim Wenders’ English language debut, Hammett. Based on the novel of the same name by Joe Gores, Hammett was a piece of speculative fiction that took the famous crime writer Dashiell Hammett and mashed him up with storylines from his own books to make Hammett a gumshoe in his own right. While not nearly as expensive as One From The Heart, the highly stylized Hammett met with a similar fate. Made for more than 7 million dollars, Hammett grossed just $42,000. 

And just like that, despite earning an Oscar nomination and numerous critical plaudits while working with some of the most significant directors in the business, Forrest’s days as a leading man were over. Even when Forrest was in a project of note, he was often billed well after the leads. He had a nice part in Martha Coolidge’s delightful ‘80s time capsule film, Valley Girl from 1983, but the great parts became few and far between. 

Forrest also did excellent work in Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream, on TV’s legendary miniseries Lonesome Dove, as the original Captain on 21 Jump Street, Costa-Gavras’ The Music Box starring Jessica Lange, the failed Jack Nicholson-directed Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, he played the real Dashiell Hammett in the terrific TV movie Citizen Cohn starring James Woods, and gave perhaps his best post-Apocalypse Now performance in a small role as a white-supremacist who owns a surplus store in Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down from 1993. After Michael Douglas’ lead character has a mental breakdown in LA traffic, gets involved in the shooting of a gang member, he ends up wandering into a surplus store where Forrest’s unhinged store owner offers him a rocket launcher to kill more people of color. If memory serves, Forrest has just the one scene, but he could not have possibly been more convincing and unnerving.

I suppose there’s a temptation to feel a bit of sadness for Frederic Forrest, a very fine actor who was in demand (for a time) by high-class filmmakers, even got an Oscar nomination, but never was able to stay in the main thoroughfare of Hollywood despite his obvious talents. But, on the other hand, Frederic Forrest made four films with Francis Ford Coppola, he did get that Oscar nomination, and he typically made everything he was in better than it would have been without him.

There should be no sadness in that.

Frederic Forrest died on June 23, 2023. He was 86 years old.