i can’t believe what’s happened. thank you so much for giving us unforgettable performances and bringing great joy to so many. you will be greatly missed. Rest In Peace Chadwick Boseman ❤️
This truly sucks bigtime! One of my favorite actors Robert Forster has died at 78. He was excellent in so many films and TV shows, even when the film or show was bad, he was consistently good.
Forster in Medium Cool
He has 186 acting credits on his IMDB, several are in my collection. He was the lead in Haskell Wexler’s political drama Medium Cool, one of my favorite Jaws rip-offs Alligator, the doctor in Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake, the indie Diamond Men, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, the father-in-law in Alexander Payne’s brilliant The Descendants, small but noteworthy role on Breaking Bad, Sheriff Frank Truman on Lynch’s Twin Peaks revival, and the news sadly comes as he re-appeared in the Breaking Bad role in the just-released El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
On Twin Peaks
Possibly his greatest performance of all was the career comeback he got in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Forster auditioned but didn’t get the part of Joe in Reservoir Dogs, but QT kept him in mind for the bail bondsman Max Cherry in Jackie Brown, his adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel. It was such a great performance among a phenomenal cast. After it was released in 1997, so much attention was on star Pam Grier, but then when the Academy Award nominations were announced, Forster was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, the film’s only nomination. Years later, he returned to Elmore Leonard’s universe when he starred on the short-lived but very good Karen Sisco.
Pam Grier and Forster in Jackie Brown
At the 2002 Marco Island Film Festival, I attended the fest with my short To Be John Woo. The lifetime achievement recipient was Forster. Just knowing that my film was selected to be a part of the same festival that Forster was also a part of was a tremendous honor for me. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it to the festival because he had been cast in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle at the last minute. But they had a little montage of his films, he called in to say thank you, and they screened his indie film Roads to Riches he did with Rose McGowan.
In the 2000s, I had a screenplay I wrote and one of my casting choices was Forster for a supporting role. Sadly I never got my screenplay to him and never got to direct him.
The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.
The skull and skeleton of Joseph Merrick, better known as ‘The Elephant Man’. The cause of the excessive growths throughout Merrick’s skeleton has been a topic of debate, and the current theory is that Merrick may have suffered from a combination of disorders, namely neurofibromatosis type 1 and proteus syndrome, although DNA tests have been inconclusive. Merrick’s skeleton is currently kept in a small museum of the medical school of the Royal London Hospital, the same place where he spent his later years and eventually passed away aged only 27.
“I like things that go into hidden, mysterious places, places I want to explore that are very disturbing. In that disturbing thing, there is sometimes tremendous poetry and truth.”
A daily experience which gives me the meat for the skeleton of my script..