Frederic Forrest

Frederic Fenimore Forrest, Jr. was born in Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas on December 23, 1936 to Frederic Fenimore Forrest (1907 – 1966) and Virginia McSpadden Forrest (1907 – 1985). His family members were long time residents of Waxahachie. William Bird Forrest (1872 – 1931) came to the area from Arkansas and established a greenhouse out of which developed a floral business in a separate location. The greenhouse had 60,000 square feet under glass and for many years was the only floral supply house in north central Texas. Not even Waco, Dallas or Fort Worth had comparable facilities. Ads and promotional pieces in the local paper referred to “Bird Forrest, the Waxahachie Florist.” After Bird died in 1931, two of the sons, Fred and William Bird, Jr. took over management of the floral business.

Frederic Forrest, Jr. was known as Fred or Freddy at Waxahachie High School. While a student he was a four sport athlete and participated in football, golf, baseball and track. He was also involved in extracurricular activities and was a member of the Hi-Y, Pan American, Science and Music clubs. Forrest was also named Most Handsome his senior year, graduating in 1955. After high school he graduated from Texas Christian University in 1960 and served in the United States Army. His degree at Texas Christian University was in radio and television studies with a minor in theater arts.

Drawn to acting as a profession, he elected not to take a stage name. Forrest studied with three of New York’s best known drama coaches, Irene Dailey, Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner and began to gain experience in off-Broadway productions while living there. His film and television resume was quite strong and extended from the late 1960s to after 2000. Some of his film and television roles include the following: Tom Black Bull in “When the Legends Die,” Mark (with Gene Hackman) in “The Conversation,” Jay “Chef” Hicks in “Apocalypse Now,” Larry Herman, the main character in “Larry,” Lee Harvey Oswald in “Ruby and Oswald,” Huston Dyer in “The Rose” for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Dashiell Hammett in “Hammett,” Petronius in “Quo Vadis?,” Eddie in “Tucker: The Man and His Dreams,” Blue Duck in “Lonesome Dove,” Nick the store owner in “Falling Down,” Donald Stark in “All the King’s Men” and many others.

In “Ruby and Oswald” he played the role of Lee Harvey Oswald. The film was directed by Mel Stuart, who had already done the series “The Making of the President” and the documentary “Four Days in November.” “Ruby and Oswald” follows the main characters until their fateful meeting in the basement of the Dallas Police Department building. Interestingly, the cast includes retired Dallas detective James “Jim” Leavelle and Rabbi Hillel Silverman of Dallas Congregation Shearith Israel, of which Jack Ruby was a member, who played themselves. Forrest was slightly injured in the pivotal shooting scene in which the actor playing Ruby (Michael Lerner), fired the gun loaded with blanks. Lerner’s gun, a prop, shot out the wadding and struck Forrest in the arm. The scene had to be reshot before Forrest was checked out at a hospital. Jim Leavelle and Rabbi Silverman both brought their own memories to the experience in the film. Leavelle remarked that he would only agree to be involved if he could read the script. He was not interested in fantasy or conjecture. A previous project with which Leavelle was not associated had Oswald surviving the shooting and going on to stand trial for the Kennedy assassination. As most people should recall, Leavelle had been handcuffed to Oswald in the fatal shooting incident and Rabbi Silverman had visited Ruby after his arrest for the murder of Oswald.

In “Larry,” Frederic played the main character, a person who has been mistakenly confined since his childhood in a home for the mentally challenged. In “Andersonville” he played a Union prisoner named Sergeant McSpadden as he and others were confined in a notorious Civil War Confederate prison camp. His on screen appearance was short in “The Conversation” but his voice is heard throughout that film. His last credited film was “All The King’s Men” when he was about seventy years old.

His Texas relatives were often interviewed for local newspapers. One of them stated that after he played a Native American role in “When the Legends Die” there was a brief lull in the offers he received. Forrest surmised that it was because Hollywood people thought that he was of Native American descent and could only play those parts. Forrest says that he and his sister were told that they had some Cherokee ancestry but we note no other verification of this.

Forrest had a key role among the large cast for “Lonesome Dove,” He and many of the other actors and workers were interviewed for John Spong, Jeff Wilson and Bill Wittliff’s “coffee table” sized book called “A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove.” Lonesome Dove (based on the novel by Larry McMurtry) was a three part miniseries in which Forrest appeared as the violent bandit Blue Duck. There was an individual named Bluford “Blue” Duck who was a one time associate of Belle Starr. However, other than the character’s name, there does not appear to be much, if any, similarity between this person or any other historical figure with the fictional character.

Many of Forrest’s comments were included in the text of the book. One comment dealt with playing Native American roles. He said that after performing in “When the Legends Die” he shied away from accepting such roles because he did not want to take jobs away from Native Americans. The organizers assured Forrest that the Blue Duck character was going to be written as a person of mixed race not associated with any one tribe, so he accepted the part. He also said that his role was that of an emotionless killer and he outlined some of the things that he did to prepare for it. He came up with nuances to the character, such as attaching brooches (at least one of which he bought in a Taos pawn shop) to the vest of his costume that were supposedly taken from the clothing of his female victims. He also got the makeup department to construct props to use for scalps. In addition, he said that he read interviews of tribe members after the Battle of Little Big Horn to understand the motivation of the attackers in that event.

He was an accomplished character actor who mastered a variety of different roles. Forrest died at his home in Santa Monica, California on June 23, 2023 after what was called a long illness. He had previously been married three times and was survived by a sibling. His remains were cremated and buried with his parents in the City Cemetery in Waxahachie, Texas.

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