Robert Forster, Beloved Breaking Bad and Jackie Brown Star, Dead at 78
Paul Dailly
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Robert Forster has died.
The beloved actor, who is best known for his roles on Jackie Brown and Breaking Bad, died on Friday following a battle with brain cancer. He was 78.
His passing comes on the same day the Breaking Bad movie, El Camino, was released.
Forster reprised his role Ed in that movie, the one he played on the hit AMC original series, meaning that fans may already have watched his final role.
He started out his career with roles in hit movies Reflections in a Golden Eye and Medium Cool, before turning his attention to the small screen.
He was the lead cast member on NBC's Banyon and ABC's Nakia, but both series were short-lived.
Forster followed those up with roles in Magnum P.I., Walker, Texas Ranger, and Police Story.
However, his breakthrough role came in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. He played the role of bail bondsman Max Cherry in the 1997 hit.
He went on to snag a nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the movie.
In the years following that success, he starred in Karen Sisco, Heroes, Alcatraz, Divorce, an even the Twin Peaks revival.
Forster's final TV appearance was in FOX's Last Man Standing in 2018.
He reprised the role of Mike Baxter's (Tim Allen) now-deceased father, Bud, in the most emotional episode of that particular series to date.
Acting was not Forster's first choice of career. He wanted to become a lawyer but found himself in the acting world after following a female student he was trying to impress into an audition.
Forster has had a long career in the spotlight, appearing in a lot of movies and TV shows.
The actor said he took many of his roles out of necessity, revealing to the Chicago Tribune last year:
"I had four kids, I took any job I could get."
"Every time it reached a lower level I thought I could tolerate, it dropped some more, and then some more."
Near the end, I had no agent, no manager, no lawyer, no nothing. I was taking whatever fell through the cracks."
Co-stars paid tribute to Forster on social media, with his Alligator and Breaking Bad co-star, Bryan Cranston, saying the following:
“I’m saddened today by the news that Robert Forster has passed away. A lovely man and a consummate actor," Cranston shared on Twitter.
“I met him on the movie Alligator (pic) 40 years ago, and then again on BB. I never forgot how kind and generous he was to a young kid just starting out in Hollywood. RIP Bob.”
Greg Grunberg, who starred with Forster on the NBC series Heroes, remembered the “legend” as “a beautiful person.”
Heroes writer Bryan Fuller asked mourners to re-watch Forster’s “beautiful, yearning performance as Max Cherry in Jackie Brown.”
His Jackie Brown co-star Samuel L Jackson tweeted that Forster was "truly a class act/Actor!!"
Our thoughts are with Forster's family and friends.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
