Michael Forest, the burly actor who starred in Beast of the Haunted Cave and other B pictures for Roger Corman and made memorable guest star appearances in classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Dick Van Dyke Show And Star Trekdied. He was 97 years old.
Forest lived in a senior living facility in Sparks, Nev., and died Wednesday, his friend James A. Brown said.
A native of North Dakota, Forest has also made more than 20 films in Spain, France and England, including 100 rifles (1969), starring Jim Brown and Raquel Welch – and was a busy dubber who spoke fluent Italian, dubbing over 500 films while living in Rome from 1968 to 1978.
Standing six feet three inches tall and weighing 215 pounds at his peak, Forest had recently moved to Los Angeles when he met Corman in an acting class and was hired to play the whip-cracking barbarian Zarko in The saga of the Viking women and their journey to the waters of the great sea serpent (1957), with Richard Devon, Abby Dalton and Jonathan Haze.
This led him to the snow of Deadwood, South Dakota, and becoming local guide Gil Jackson in the horror film. Beast of the Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Roger’s brother Gene Corman, and starring Chris Robinson as the monster. (Monte Hellman, who lived in the same building as Forest at the time, made his directorial debut in the film.)
One day after completing the work Beast of the Haunted CaveForest was back, playing an American soldier in the war film directed by Roger Corman. Attack of the ski troops (1960). And after that he quickly went to Athens to play the title hero in Atlas (1960), with Corman looking to tap into the popular Hercules pictures starring Steve Reeves.
Forest played one of three motorcycling brothers from another planet (Lee Kinsolving and Tom Gilleran were the others) sent to wipe out humans on Earth. Twilight Zone episode “Black Leather Jackets”, starring Shelley Fabares and premiered January 22, 1964.
Nine days later, he was on CBS again. The Dick Van Dyke Show as Laura’s (Mary Tyler Moore) former lover who is now a priest – moving in with Rose Marie’s Sally Rogers was ideal for a laugh – in the episode “The Life and Love of Joe Coogan”.
And on the second season Star Trek episode “Who mourns Adonaïs? » First broadcast in September 1967, Forest depicts the Greek god Apollo who demands that the crew of the Starship Enterprise worship him as he falls in love with Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas (another guest star Leslie Parrish).
Michael Forest as the giant Apollo in the 1967 Star Trek episode “Who Mourns Adonais?” »
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
In 2013, he returned as Apollo in the fan-produced series. Star Trek continues working alongside his late wife, Diana Hale, as Athena.
Gérald Michael Charlebois was born on April 17, 1929 in Harvey, North Dakota. He moved with his family as a young man to Seattle and said he decided to become an actor — instead of boxing — after seeing a friend perform at the Seattle Rep Playhouse.
After attending the University of Washington and San Jose State, he moved to Los Angeles in 1955 and appeared in an episode of Highway Patrol and began performing for the Players Ring theater company in West Hollywood. He first met Roger Corman in an acting class both were taking with the famous teacher Jeff Corey.
“One day he said to me, ‘Listen, Mike, you want to take this picture (Viking women)”,” Forest recalled in an interview for Tom Weaver’s 2001 book, I was a monster movie director. “It would be nothing more than some kind of glorified stunt, but if you want to do it, fine. » I said, “Of course.”
He spent five weeks in South Dakota Beast of the Haunted Cave And Attack of the ski troops and told Weaver he received $2,500. “I was making $500 a week,” he said. “I think at that time the weekly minimum was $350 and I was getting $500 of that – I was expecting a lot of money!”
Also in 1960, he reappeared as French-Canadian thug Pierre Duran alongside Roger Moore in the Warner Bros./ABC adventure series. Alaskans.
Michael Forest in 1960’s “Ski Troop Attack.”
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
He found himself under contract at Warners – then Universal – and worked on everything from Zoro, Masterson Bat, Nonconformist, Bargain, Have a weapon – will travel, Lawyer, The Rifleman, Death Valley Days And Wagon train has Dr Kildare, Gomer Pyle: USMC, The outer limits, Perry Mason, UNCLE’S MAN, Gun smoke, Fight!, Gilligan’s Island And Be smart until the end of the 1960s.
During this time, Forest played a lot of Shakespeare, playing Othello three times and appearing as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew at the Old Globe in San Diego. (He picked up his Star Trek concert after someone at the theater recommended it.)
Returning from Europe, he lived in New York while playing Nick Andropoulos, owner of the Greek restaurant The Plakka, on the CBS soap opera. As the world turns from 1980 to 1982.
Forest later portrayed the wealthy older millionaire who suffered a fatal heart attack after an intense sadomasochistic encounter with Madonna’s Rebecca Carlson in Evidence set (1993) and was a pilot in the film with Tom Hanks Dismiss (2000).
He and Hale were married for 52 years until his death in 2022.
“I look back, and it certainly hasn’t been what you would call a distinguished career, but on the other hand it hasn’t been bad,” he once said. “Some of the things I’ve done I’m very proud of. But, like all actors, you work in material and situations that aren’t what you want, and you try to do your best. Acting has its ups and downs.”
Gn entert
