It's a sad time in Hollywood as veteran actor and Oscar nominee Robert Forster has died. According to his publicist, Forster died from brain cancer in his Los Angeles home on Friday - the very same day his final movie El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie premiered. He is survived by his longtime partner Denise Grayson; children Elizabeth, Bobby, Kate, and Maeghen; and grandchildren Tess, Liam, Jack, and Olivia. Forster was 78 years old.
Forster's work as a professional movie actor dates all the way back to 1967, debuting on the big screen as Private Williams in Reflections in a Golden Eye. He snagged his first leading role two years later when he starred as TV news cameraman John Cassellis in director Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool, which Roger Ebert dubbed the second best movie of 1969. He was later starring on TV shows like Banyon and Nakia and appearing in a variety of cult favorite movie from the '70s and '80s like Vigilante, The Delta Force, and the Disney movie The Black Hole.
Perhaps Forster's most well-known role came in 1997 when he starred in the Quentin Tarantino movie Jackie Brown as bail bondsman Max Cherry. The star-studded cast of the movie also included Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton. As the prominence of his roles had diminished in the years prior, Forster had credited the role with reviving his career. His performance in particular was also so critically acclaimed, it earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, which ultimately went to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting.
While Forster had appeared in dozens of movies over the span of several decades, he had established himself as a television star as well. He was David Lynch's original choice to play Sheriff Harry S. Truman on the classic mystery series Twin Peaks, though scheduling conflicts forced him to turn it down. More recently, Truman played Sheriff Truman's brother Frank in the revival series Twin Peaks: The Return, finally giving him the chance to work with Lynch. "I said, 'Whatever it is David, here I come!'" Forster quoted himself as saying when he received the call from Lynch to be a part of the project.
Of course, Forster has also been recognized for appearing alongside Bryan Cranston on the hit TV series Breaking Bad, playing a character whose specialty is giving people entirely new lives under alternate identities. It was this person who helped both Walter White (Cranston) and Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) evade persecution by supplying them with alternate identities. He reprised the role for the recently-released movie sequel to the series, which would ultimately become his final acting appearance. You can now catch Forster in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie on Netflix to see the actor do what he did best one last time.
The legendary actor may be gone, but he leaves behind an incredible legacy, and his large body of work will ensure Forster is remembered for many years to come. May he forever rest in peace. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.