“I didn’t come here for this, I don’t fucking need it, all I wanted to do was fucking cook,” angrily exclaims “chef” Jay, played by Frederic Forrest in Apocalypse Now before being beheaded. The American actor, with memorable supporting roles, died Friday, June 23, in Santa Monica. He was 86 years old.
The news was announced by actress and singer Bette Midler on Twitter and confirmed by the family.
“The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has passed away,” she wrote. Thank you to all his fans and friends for all their support over the past few months. He was a remarkable actor and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace.” Bette Midler co-starred with the actor in The Rose, a musical drama by Mark Rydell released in 1979 and loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin. The role had earned the two actors an Oscar nomination, respectively as best actor and best actress in a supporting role.
The same year in Apocalypse Now, by Francis Ford Coppola, Frederic Forrest made an impression for his role as Jay “Chief” Hicks, one of the members of the expedition led to Cambodia by Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), in the midst of Vietnam War. The director calls on him again and offers him the main role of his next film, Coup de coeur (1981). The romantic drama is a critical and commercial failure.
Frederic Forrest will once again collaborate with Coppola, who calls on the actor again for a supporting role in his biopic Tucker (1988). “Freddie Forrest was a sweet and much-loved person, a wonderful actor and a good friend. His loss breaks my heart,” wrote Francis Ford Coppola in a press release relayed by Variety. Wim Wenders also trusted the actor to carry his neo-noir thriller Hammett (1982).
Born on December 23, 1936 in Waxahachie, Texas, Frederic Forrest studied at Texas Christian University before moving to Hollywood where he got his first screen role, in the western When the legends die, by Stuart Millar, in 1972. A role which immediately earned him a nomination for the Golden Globes in 1973 for the male revelation of the year, before accumulating others alongside the greatest.
He notably shares the poster with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson in Missouri Breaks (1976), with Michael Douglas in Chutelibre (1994) or with Mickey Rourke and Danny Trejo in Ultime Recours (1998), a nanar by Matt Earl Beesley. Without forgetting, in 1993, his role in the first American film by Dario Argento, Trauma. The small screen is no exception. The actor appeared in the miniseries Lonesome Dove and Quo Vadis as well as in the series, which devoted the young Johnny Depp, 21 Jump Street. His last screen appearance was in 2006, with a small role in Steven Zaillian’s Les Fous du roi, alongside Sean Penn.
