RIP Michael Forest

 

American film, TV and voice actor Michael Forest died in Sparks, Nevada on October 14^th. He was 97. Born Gerald Michael Charlebois on April 17, 1929, in Harvey, North Dakota. He moved with his family as a youngster to Seattle and said he decided to pursue acting — instead of boxing — after seeing a friend perform at the Seattle Rep Playhouse. After he attended the University of Washington and San Jose State, he moved to Los Angeles in 1955, appeared on an episode of ‘Highway Patrol’ and started acting for the Players Ring theater company in West Hollywood. He first met Roger Corman in an acting class that both were taking with noted teacher Jeff Corey. Forest wound up under contract at Warners — and later Universal — and worked on everything from ‘Zorro’, ‘Bat Masterson’, ‘Maverick’, ‘Bonanza’, ‘Have Gun — Will Travel’, ‘Lawman’, ‘The Rifleman’, ‘Death Valley Days’ and ‘Wagon Train’ to ‘Dr. Kildare’, ‘Gomer Pyle: USMC’, ‘The Outer Limits’, ‘Perry Mason’, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’, ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘Combat!’, ‘Gilligan’s Island’ and ‘Get Smart’ through the end of the 1960s. Moving to Italy he appeared in some 20 films including acting in five Spaghetti westerns: “The Wrath of God” as Pitt in 1968, “100 Rifles” as Humara in 1969, “The Last Rebel” as the pool hustler in 1970, “Requiem for a Bounty Hunter” as Ryan/John Burton/Nick Barton in 1971 and “Now They Call Him Sacramento” as Sacramento/Amen in 1972. He also did voice actin work and provided the voice of Kirk Morris in “Little Rita the West” in 1967, additional voice for both “Compañeros” in 1970 and “The Grand Duel” in 1972 and for James Coburn in “Massacre at Fort Holman in 1972.