John Forsythe (born either John Lincoln Freund or Jacob Lincoln Freund; January 29, 1918 - April 1, 2010) was an American stage, film/television actor, producer, narrator, drama teacher and philanthropist, whose career spanned six decades. He had also appeared as a guest on several talk and variety shows, and as a panelist on numerous game shows.

Forsythe's 60-year acting career, which began in films in 1943, signed up with Warner Bros. at age 25, as a minor contract player, but he later skyrocketed in films like: The Captive City (1952). He also co-starred opposite Loretta Young in It Happens Every Thursday (1953), Edmund Gwenn and Shirley MacLaine in The Trouble With Harry (1955) and Olivia De Havilland in The Ambassador's Daughter (1956). He also had a very successful television career, who had starred in three television series, spanning four decades and three genres: as single playboy father Bentley Gregg, in the sitcom Bachelor Father (1957-62); as the unseen millionaire, Charles Townsend, on the crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976-81); and as patriarch Blake Carrington on Dynasty (1981-89). He hosted World of Survival (1971-77).

Early life

The eldest of three children, Forsythe was born as John or Jacob Lincoln Freund, sources differ, on January 29, 1918, in Penns Grove, New Jersey, to Blanche Materson (née Blohm) and Samuel Jeremiah Freund. Blanche was born in Pennsylvania, to David Hyat Blohm, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and to Mary S. Materson, who was born in Maryland, to Jewish immigrants from Prussia. Samuel was a stockbroker born in New York to Polish Jewish immigrants.

He was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where his father worked as a Wall Street businessman during the Great Depression of the 1930s. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn at the age of 16, and began attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1936 at the age of 18, he took a job as the public address announcer for Brooklyn Dodgers games at Ebbets Field, confirming a childhood love of baseball.

Movie career and Army service

Despite showing initial reluctance, Forsythe began an acting career at the suggestion of his father. He met actress Parker Worthington McCormick (December 29, 1918 - July 22, 1980), and the couple married in 1939; they had a son, Dall (born February 14, 1941), and divorced in 1943.

As a bit player for Warner Brothers, Forsythe successfully appeared in several small parts. As a result he was given a small role in Destination Tokyo (1943). Leaving his movie career for service in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II, he appeared in the U.S. Army Air Corps play and film Winged Victory, then worked with injured soldiers who had developed speech problems.

Also in 1943, Forsythe met Julie Warren, initially a theatre companion, but later a successful actress in her own right, landing a role on Broadway in Around the World. Warren became Forsythe's second wife and in the early 1950s the marriage produced two daughters - Page and Brooke. In 1947, Forsythe joined the initial class of the soon-to-be prestigious Actors Studio, where he met other promising young actors including Marlon Brando and Julie Harris. During this time he appeared on Broadway in Mister Roberts and The Teahouse of the August Moon.

In 1955 Alfred Hitchcock cast Forsythe in the movie The Trouble with Harry, with Shirley MacLaine in her first movie appearance, for which she won a Golden Globe.

Television work

Throughout the 1950s, Forsythe successfully appeared in the new medium and worked regularly on all the networks, especially as a guest star. For example, during this period, he appeared on the popular anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents in an episode titled "Premonition" opposite Cloris Leachman. Forsythe also starred in an episode of the CBS Western anthology series Zane Grey Theatre titled Decision at Wilson's Creek, which premiered May 17, 1957. Outdoor location sequences for the episode were shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, where a number of scenes took place in a group of oak trees on the Upper Iverson that later came to be known as the Midway Oaks. One of those oak trees, a distinctive multi-trunked tree with a characteristic lean, became known as the Forsythe Oak, commemorating John Forsythe's appearance at the fabled movie ranch, considered the most widely filmed outdoor location in movie and television history. The Forsythe Oak remains in place today, located on a private estate on the former Upper Iverson.

Bachelor Father

In 1957, he took a leading role in the situation comedy Bachelor Father for CBS as Bentley Gregg, a playboy lawyer who has to become a father to his niece Kelly (played by Noreen Corcoran), upon the death of her biological parents. The show was an immediate ratings hit and moved to NBC the following season and to ABC in the fall of 1961. On various episodes Forsythe worked with such up-and-coming actresses as Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara Eden, Donna Douglas, Sally Kellerman, Sue Ane Langdon, and a teenage Linda Evans. During the 1961 season, Bachelor Father moved to ABC, but was cancelled that season due to declining ratings.

After Bachelor Father

In the early 1960s, Forsythe returned to acting in movies including Kitten with a Whip (1964), Madame X (1966) and In Cold Blood (1967). In 1964 he starred in See How They Run which is notable for being the first film made for television. He also attempted two new television programs: The John Forsythe Show on NBC with Guy Marks, Elsa Lanchester, Ann B. Davis, Peggy Lipton, and Forsythe's two young daughters, Page and Brooke (1965-1966), and To Rome with Love on CBS (1969-1971) with co-star Walter Brennan. Between 1971 and 1977, Forsythe served as narrator on the syndicated nature series, The World of Survival. He was also the announcer for Michelob beer commercials from the 1970s through about 1985, notably during the "Weekends were made for Michelob" era.

Charlie's Angels

Forsythe began a 13-year association with Aaron Spelling in 1976, cast in the role of mysterious unseen millionaire private investigator Charles Townsend in the crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976-1981). The show starred Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Farrah Fawcett, making stars of all three but catapulting Fawcett to iconic status. Forsythe introduces the series' concept during its opening credits:

On every episode, Forsythe, as Townsend, is heard over a speaker phone, instructing the eponymous Angels on their mission for the episode. Character actor David Doyle played Charlie's on-screen liaison to the Angels, who in later seasons included Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack, and Tanya Roberts. Charlie's Angels was a huge success, and was shown in more than 90 countries.

Forsythe became the highest paid actor on television on a per-hour basis: while the show's on-camera stars often worked 15-hour days five days a week, with a couple of hours just for hair and makeup, Forsythe's lines for an entire episode would be recorded in a sound studio in a matter of minutes, after which he would have lunch in the network's commissary and then leave for the track. During this period, Forsythe invested much money in thoroughbred racing, a personal hobby. Gaining respect with the celebrity thoroughbred circuit, he served on the Board of Directors at the Hollywood Park Racetrack starting in 1972, and was on the committee for more than 25 years.

Following heart problems, Forsythe underwent quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery in 1979. This was so successful that he not only returned to work on Charlie's Angels, he also appeared in the two-time Academy Award-nominated motion picture ...And Justice for All later that year as Judge Henry T. Fleming, the film's main antagonist, an evil corrupt judge who despises Al Pacino's lawyer character.

Dynasty

In 1981, nearing the end of Charlie's Angels, Forsythe was selected as a last-minute replacement for George Peppard in the role of conniving patriarch Blake Carrington in Dynasty. Another Aaron Spelling production, Dynasty was ABC's answer to the highly successful CBS series Dallas. Between 1985-87, Forsythe also appeared as Blake Carrington in the short-lived spinoff series The Colbys.

The series reunited Forsythe with one-time Bachelor Father guest star Linda Evans, who would play Blake's wife, Krystle. During the run of the series, Forsythe, Evans and another co-star Joan Collins, who played Blake's ex-wife Alexis, promoted the Dynasty line of fragrances. Dynasty came to an end in 1989, after a total of nine seasons. Forsythe was the only actor to appear in all 220 episodes.

Forsythe was nominated for Emmy Awards three times between 1982 and 1984 for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" but did not win. He was also nominated six times for Golden Globe Awards, winning twice. He was nominated five times for the Soap Opera Digest Awards, also winning twice.

Linda Evans stated, during a 2012 interview, that John Forsythe had a pretty good memory off the Dynasty set: "When I did meet him in Bachelor Father it was a show called 'Crush on Bentley' and his niece that was 'The Bachelor Father' of and I were the same age, 15 years old (Noreen Corcoran). We did the show and I had a crush on Bentley, and in the end, he fixes me up with these football players, and it was so sweet getting to know him, then, and he signed my script, because it was my first speaking part and he put on it, 'Linda, you're going to be somebody someday,' and I found it when I was doing Dynasty, and brought it on the set and said, 'See John, you were psychic, you knew this was going to happen.' It was so easy when I saw him when I walked on the set of Dynasty. He looked at me and he said, 'Mine Linda Evans, did how you're grown and how's your mother, Arlene?' And he remembered my mother's name. He remembered my real name - which is Evanstad. MGM Studios later changed it to Evans. I said, 'Oh John, it's going to be so easy to love you in this part and it was Heaven to work with him, absolute Heaven, he had the most delicious sense of humor. He would make me laugh, all day long and we had so much drama, and on the script of Dynasty, and fights and things that we had to do with people, and he would constantly just joking/laughing, saying, 'Come on, you can do this?,' And we have to go out to get some awards and I was afraid to get up and in-front of people, when I was in junior high school - from that day, I was so shy and get up to do a book report, and he would encourage me and take my hand and walk up with me, he was extraordinary. We remained friends until he died, I talked to him like 3 weeks before he passed, and we talked all the time."

The Powers That Be

In 1992, after a three-year absence, Forsythe returned to series television starring in Norman Lear's situation comedy, The Powers That Be for NBC, co-starring Holland Taylor, Peter MacNicol, Valerie Mahaffey and David Hyde-Pierce. He was reunited with one-time co-star Cloris Leachman, who, although eight years his junior, played his mother in one episode. The show was canceled after only one year.

Post-1990s work and life

Forsythe's wife of 51 years, Julie Warren (October 20, 1919 — August 15, 1994), died at the age of 74, in her hospital room, after Forsythe made the decision to turn off her life-support system. She had been in a coma following severe breathing difficulties. In July 2002, Forsythe married businesswoman Nicole Carter (May 27, 1941 - May 11, 2010) at Ballard Country Church; they remained married until his death.

In 1989, Forsythe hosted The Miss Universe 1989 Pageant on CBS.

Forsythe reprised his role as Charlie for the film version of Charlie's Angels (2000) and its sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), but then retired from acting. Besides spending time with his family, he enjoyed ownership of an art gallery. In 2005 actor Bartholomew John portrayed Forsythe in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of Dynasty.

On May 2, 2006, Forsythe appeared with Dynasty co-stars Linda Evans, Joan Collins, Pamela Sue Martin, Al Corley, Gordon Thomson and Catherine Oxenberg in Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar. The one-hour reunion special of the former ABC series aired on CBS. Forsythe appeared each year to read to children during the annual Christmas program near his home at the rural resort community of Solvang, California.

Forsythe was treated for colorectal cancer in the fall of 2006. Surgery was reportedly successful and his cancer was considered to be in remission.

Death

Forsythe died on April 1, 2010, from pneumonia in Santa Ynez, California, aged 92. His widow, Nicole, died five weeks later. He was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California. Forsythe is survived by his three children and extended family.

Thoroughbred racing

Forsythe owned and bred Thoroughbred racehorses for many years and was a member of the Board of Directors of Hollywood Park Racetrack. Among his successes, in partnership with film producer Martin Ritt he won the 1976 Longacres Mile with Yu Wipi. With partner Ken Opstein, he won the 1982 Sixty Sails Handicap with Targa, and the 1993 La Brea Stakes with a daughter of Targa, Mamselle Bebette, which he raced under the name of his Big Train Farm, a stable he named for Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, Walter Johnson, In the 1980s, John Forsythe served as the regular host for the annual Eclipse Awards. He was the recipient of the 1988 Eclipse Award of Merit for his contribution in promoting the sport of Thoroughbred racing.

Filmography

• Northern Pursuit (1943)
• Destination Tokyo (1943)
• The Captive City (1952)
• It Happens Every Thursday (1953)
• The Glass Web (1953)
• Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
• American Harvest (Revised Edition) (1955) (short subject) (narrator)
• The Trouble with Harry (1955)
• The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)
• Everything But the Truth (1956)
• Dubrowsky (it) (1959)
• Kitten with a Whip (1964)
• Madame X (1966)
• In Cold Blood (1967)
• Silent Treatment (1968)
• Murder Once Removed (1971)
• Topaz (1969)
• The Happy Ending (1969)
• Goodbye and Amen (1977)
• ...And Justice for All (1979)
• Scrooged (1988)
• Stan and George's New Life (1991)
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1999) (voice) (direct-to-video)
• Charlie's Angels (2000) (voice)
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) (voice)

Television work

• Curtain Call (1952)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)
• Zane Grey Theatre (1957)
• Bachelor Father (1957-1962)
• The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (June 9, 1960)
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962)
• See How They Run (1964)
• The John Forsythe Show (1965-1966)
• A Bell for Adano (1967)
• Shadow on the Land (1968)
• To Rome with Love (1969-1971)
• Murder Once Removed (1971)
• The World of Survival (1971-1977) (narrator)
• The Letters (1973) (unsold pilot)
• Lisa, Bright and Dark (1973)
• Cry Panic (1974)
• The Healers (1974)
• Terror on the 40th Floor (1974)
• The Deadly Tower (1975)
• Charlie's Angels (1976-1981)
• Amelia Earhart (1976)
• Tail Gunner Joe (1977)
• Emily, Emily (1977)
• Never Con a Killer (1977) (pilot for The Feather and Father Gang)
• Cruise Into Terror (1978)
• With This Ring (1978)
• The Users (1978)
• A Time for Miracles (1980)
• Dynasty (1981-1989)
• Sizzle (1981)
• Mysterious Two (1982)
• The Love Boat (1983)
• The Colbys (1985-1986)
• On Fire (1987)
• Miss Universe Pageant (1989)
• Opposites Attract (1990)
• Dynasty: The Reunion (1991)
• The Powers That Be (1992-1993)
• I Witness Video (host from 1993-1994)
• People's Century (1995) (miniseries) (narrator in U.S. version)
• People's Century (1998) (narrator)
• Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar (2006)

Radio appearances

[ Source: Wikipedia ]