When pundits say that just being nominated for an Academy Award is tantamount to winning, they must have had actor ROBERT FORSTER in mind. His role as Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” was a landmark performance and helped revive a career, which Forster has described as having “a five year upwards first act and a 25 year sliding second act.” His performance garnered universally great critical acclaim, but even more importantly, he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. It has turned around a career that started over 35 years ago and put him suddenly in great demand.
He has not stopped working since he co-starred with Samuel Jackson, Pam Grier and Robert DeNiro, as the innately decent bail bondsman in “Jackie Brown”, performing in a roster of roles in films and television which run the gamut of both high profile and independent projects. This year he has again won accolades from film critics including those in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Philadelphia praising his work in David Mamet’s “Lakeboat,” directed by Joe Mantegna, and the up coming “Diamond Men,” with Donnie Wahlberg, as the traveling salesman forced to mentor his young replacement. Also Forster recently starred in “Strange Hearts” with Rose McGowan, a modern-day film noir. On the small screen he co-starred in the recent CBS TV film, “Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes,” with Mary Tyler Moore.
After “Jackie Brown,” Forster starred in a quartet of independent films “Outside Ozona,” “Family Tree,” “The Magic of Marciano,” co-starring Nastassja Kinski and “It’s the Rage,” with an all-star ensemble including Joan Allen, Gary Sinise and Andre Braugher, as well as the updated versions of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” directed by Gus Van Sant and a television version of “Rear Window,” with Christopher Reeve. In 1999 Forster was featured in the MGM sci-fi film “Supernova,” co-starring Angela Basset and James Spader, and did an audio reading of the best-selling book, “Hit Man,” for Dove Audio.