Steve Forrest (actor)


Steve Forrest was an American actor who was well known for his role as Lt. Hondo Harrelson in the hit television series S.W.A.T., which was broadcast on ABC from 1975 to 1976. He was also known for his performance in Mommie Dearest.

Early years

Forrest was born William Forrest Andrews in Huntsville, Texas, the 12th of 13 children of Annis and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister. One of his older brothers was film star Dana Andrews.
Forrest enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 18 and fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. In 1950, he earned a bachelor's degree with honors from University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in theater with a minor in psychology.

Career

Forrest worked as a stagehand at the La Jolla Playhouse outside San Diego. There Gregory Peck discovered him, cast him in the Playhouse's production of Goodbye Again, and then arranged for Forrest's first screen test with MGM, where he was signed to a contract.
Among Forrest's notable films were So Big, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor, The Longest Day, North Dallas Forty, and Mommie Dearest. He had cameo appearances in the comedies Spies Like Us and Amazon Women on the Moon, and the 2003 film version of S.W.A.T.
Forrest was also a trained vocalist, and he made his debut on Broadway as boxer Bob Stanton in the 1958 production of the Harnick and Bock musical The Body Beautiful opposite Mindy Carson, Jack Warden and Brock Peters.
Forrest played later U.S. Senator William Borah in the 1963 episode "The Lion of Idaho" of the syndicated television anthology series Death Valley Days. In the storyline, Borah as a young attorney defends a woman in Nampa, Idaho, on a murder charge.
In 1965, Forrest and his family moved to London, where he starred as John Mannering in the title role of the British crime drama The Baron. His other television credits included The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Storefront Lawyers, S.W.A.T., Hollywood Wives, and Rod Serling's hour-long Twilight Zone episode "The Parallel", as well as Serling's Night Gallery segment "The Waiting Room".
On a 1969 episode of Gunsmoke titled "Mannon", he portrayed Will Mannon — one of the very few men ever to outdraw Matt Dillon — then reprised the character 18 years later for the 1987 television film Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge with James Arness.
Jock Ewing, the character played by Jim Davis in the television series Dallas from 1978 to 1981, was presumed to have been killed in a helicopter crash during the 1981–1982 season, although Jock's body was never found. This storyline was written into the series script on account of Davis' real-life death. In 1986 Lorimar Television, now renamed Lorimar Tele-Pictures, extended Forrest's contract from the 1985–1986 season of "Dallas", during which he had played the character Ben Stivers. They brought him back as a similar character renamed Wes Parmalee, who would be revealed to actually be Jock Ewing, in the 1986-1987 season. While the season was still in production, the news leaked that Forrest would be playing the new Jock Ewing. Fans of the show believed the new storyline was disrespectful to the memory of Davis. Lorimar was forced to drop the Wes Parmalee character and change the story outcome.
In 1953, he earned the Most Promising Newcomer award from the Golden Globes for his performance in the Warner Bros. film So Big. In a career that spanned six decades, among films he appeared in were Prisoner of War, The Living Idol, Flaming Star, The Longest Day, Rascal, The Wild Country, North Dallas Forty, Mommie Dearest, Sahara, Amazon Women on the Moon and S.W.A.T.. Among television series in which he was featured were Playhouse 90, Outlaws, Death Valley Days, The Virginian, Rawhide, Bonanza, Insight, Alias Smith and Jones, Ironside, Night Gallery, Medical Center, The Rookies, Dallas, and several different roles on Murder, She Wrote. However, his most memorable television role was that of Lt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson on S.W.A.T. from 1975 through 1976.
For his role in Mommie Dearest, Forrest won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor.

Personal life

Forrest married Christine Carilas on December 23, 1948. They had three sons: Michael, Forrest, and Stephen.
An avid and accomplished golfer, Forrest often played in charity tournaments. He competed in 1976, for example, on the U.S. team at the Bing Crosby Great Britain vs. U.S.A. Tournament, which was held that year in Scotland at Gleneagles.
Forrest died of natural causes on May 18, 2013, in Thousand Oaks, California, aged 87.

Partial filmography

  • The Ghost Ship as Sailor
  • Sealed Cargo as Holtz
  • Geisha Girl as Rocky Wilson
  • The Bad and the Beautiful as Actor in Georgia's Screen Test
  • The Clown as Young Man
  • Last of the Comanches as Lieutenant Floyd
  • Battle Circus as Sergeant
  • I Love Melvin as Photographer on Crane
  • Dream Wife as Louis
  • The Band Wagon as Passenger on Train
  • So Big as Dirk DeJong
  • Take the High Ground! as Lobo Naglaski
  • Phantom of the Rue Morgue as Professor Paul Dupin
  • Prisoner of War as Corporal Joseph Robert Stanton
  • Rogue Cop as Eddie Kelvaney
  • The Long Gray Line as Sergeant
  • Bedevilled as Gregory Fitzgerald
  • Meet Me in Las Vegas as Steve Forrest
  • The Living Idol as Terry Matthews
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Joe Rogers
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Steve Archer
  • It Happened to Jane as Lawrence Clay "Larry" Hall
  • Heller in Pink Tights as Clint Mabry
  • Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre as Mike Bagley
  • Five Branded Women as Sargeant Paul Keller
  • Flaming Star as Clint Burton
  • The Second Time Around as Dan Jones
  • The Longest Day as Captain Harding
  • The Twilight Zone as Major Robert Gaines
  • The Yellow Canary as Hub Wiley
  • The Virginian as James Templeton / Roger Layton
  • 12 O'Clock High as Major Peter Gray
  • Rawhide as Cable
  • The Fugitive as Barry Craft
  • Burke's Law as Jocko Creighton
  • The Baron as John Mannering 'The Baron'
  • Cimarron Strip as Clayton Tyce / Wiley Harpe
  • Bonanza as Dan Logan / Josh Tanner
  • Rascal as Willard North
  • Gunsmoke as Scott Coltrane / Cord Wrecken / Cole Morgan / Will Mannon
  • The High Chaparral as Johnny Rondo
  • The F.B.I. as Lee Barrington
  • The Wild Country as Jim Tanner
  • The Late Liz as Jim Hatch
  • Mission: Impossible as Edward Granger
  • Nichols as Sam Yeager
  • Alias Smith and Jones as Jake Halloran
  • Night Gallery as Grant Wilson / Sam Dichter
  • The Sixth Sense as Glenn Tuttle
  • Ghost Story as Andrew Alcott
  • Hec Ramsey as Wes Durham
  • The Streets of San Francisco as Art Styles
  • The Hanged Man as James Devlin
  • The Six Million Dollar Man as Quail
  • Cannon as Arthur Rogers
  • S.W.A.T. as Lieutenant Dan "Hondo" Harrelson
  • Testimony of Two Men as Martin Eaton
  • Last of the Mohicans as Hawkeye
  • Maneaters Are Loose! as David Birk
  • The Deerslayer as Hawkeye
  • Captain America as Lou Brackett
  • North Dallas Forty as Conrad Hunter
  • Condominium as Gus Garver
  • Mommie Dearest as Greg Savitt
  • Hotline as Tom Hunter
  • Malibu as Rich Bradley
  • Sahara as Gordon
  • Hollywood Wives as Ross Conti
  • Spies Like Us as General Sline
  • Dallas as Ben Stivers & Wes Parmalee
  • Amazon Women on the Moon as Captain Steve Nelson
  • Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge as Will Mannon
  • Dream On as Eden Pilott
  • Murder, She Wrote — Night of the Coyote
  • Storyville as Judge Quentin Murdoch
  • Columbo: A Bird in the Hand as Big Fred
  • Killer: A Journal of Murder as Warden Charles Casey
  • S.W.A.T. as SWAT Truck Driver

    Radio appearances