Hollywood Actor Robert Forster Dies of Brain Cancer
By Tess Farrand, Associate Content Editor
Hollywood Actor Robert Forster died of brain cancer October 11, 2019, in Los Angeles.
Forster’s career spanned decades with notable titles like WALKER, TEXAS RANGER, THE DESCENDANTS and faith-based project THE CASE FOR CHRIST.
In THE CASE FOR CHRIST, Forster played Lee Strobel’s father. The real-life Strobel tweeted about his passing.
“Actor Robert Forster with Leslie and me at premiere of The Case for Christ movie in 2017. We lost him to brain cancer today at age 78. He made my deceased father come alive in our film. RIP #RobertForster” Strobel said.
Actor Robert Forster with Leslie and me at premiere of The Case for Christ movie in 2017. We lost him to brain cancer today at age 78. He made my deceased father come alive in our film. RIP #RobertForster pic.twitter.com/fo6fmL2y9D
— Lee Strobel (@LeeStrobel) October 12, 2019
WHEN CALLS THE HEART producer Brian Bird also reached out with his sympathies.
RIP #RobertForster, our Walt Strobel, father of @LeeStrobel, in @TheCase4Christ. Such an amazing & prolific body of work over his career, including his Oscar nom for #JackieBrown. So grateful he said yes to our film & made such a powerful contribution with his performance. pic.twitter.com/Blx9I9FSqw
— Brian Bird (@brbird) October 12, 2019
Author Don Winslow said of Forster’s character. “A good man. Very helpful to a friend of mine when he was starting out.”
Movieguide® co-founder Dr. Ted Baehr remembers Forster with high regard. Dr. Baehr notes, “When Forster came to the Movieguide ® Awards, he brought me a present and said that he was so very appreciative that we invited him.”
Fox News reports on his beginnings:
A native of Rochester, New York, Forster quite literally stumbled into acting when, in college intending to be a lawyer, he followed a fellow female student he was trying to talk to into an auditorium where “Bye Bye Birdie” auditions were being held. He would be cast in that show, that fellow student would become his wife with whom he had three daughters, and it would start him on a new trajectory as an actor.
A fortuitous role in the 1965 Broadway production “Mrs. Dally Has a Lover” put him on the radar of Darryl Zanuck, who signed him to a studio contract. He would soon make his film debut in the 1967 John Huston film “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” which starred Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.
Forster’s latest project was BREAKING BAD follow-up EL CAMINO.
