John Forsythe's Biography

Jacob Lincoln Freund; known professionally as: John Forsythe (January 29, 1918 – April 1, 2010) was an American stage, television and film actor.[1] Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning four decades and three genres: as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s sitcom Bachelor Father (1957–1962);[1] as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend[1] on the 1970s crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), and as patriarch Blake Carrington on the 1980s soap operaDynasty (1981–1989).[1] He hosted World of Survival (1971-1977).[1] During his last years, he appeared each year to read children's fiction during the annual Christmas program near his retirement home at the rural resort community of Solvang, California, north of Los Angeles.

Early life

Forsythe, the older of three children, was born as Jacob Lincoln Freund in Wilmington's suburb of  Penns Grove, New Jersey, the son of Blanche Materson (née Blohm) and Samuel Jeremiah Freund, who worked at Dupont, before he was a New York City stockbroker. At a very young age, he began sending out cards and letters after signing his name, Link. His mother filled the house with humor and charm. On many occasions, his mother would often take John and his siblings out on boat trips, to the beach and would pack them sandwiches. His father traveled to the Delaware River to the Dupont Plant, each day. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York where his father worked as a Wall Street Businessman during the great depression of 1929.

At only 16 years of age, he graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and began attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1936 at age 18, he took a job as the announcer at Ebbets Field Stadium in Brooklyn, New York confirming a childhood love of baseball.

Movie career and army service

Despite showing initial reluctance, he moved to an acting career at the suggestion of his father. While there he met actress Parker MacCormick and the two were married in 1939. The couple had their first son, Dall in 1941 but divorced the following year. Despite this, Forsythe kept in contact with Dall.

As a bit player for Warner Brothers, Forsythe appeared promising in several small roles. As a result he was given a starring role in Destination Tokyo (1943). Leaving his movie career for service in World War II, he worked to recover injured soldiers who had developed speech problems. His time in the military ended before year end.

Also in 1943, he 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 in 80 Days. Julie became Forsythe's second wife and in the early 1950s the marriage produced two daughters - Page and Brooke, the latter four years younger.

In the late 1940s Forsythe helped found and worked at the prestigious Actors Studio where he met other promising young actors such as Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Tab Hunter, Richard Egan, Rod Serling and a 14-year-old future British young actress Joan Collins who would later co-star with him onDynasty.

During this time he appeared successfully on Broadway in Mister Roberts and The Teahouse of the August Moon.

In 1955, Alfred Hitchcock hired him to star in the movie The Trouble with Harry (1955) alongside a young Shirley MacLaine. This movie did not do well at the box office, and Forsythe found high profile movie work increasingly hard to find.

Handsome character actor

For four decades, Forsythe became one of those prolific character actors debuting on an episode ofKraft Television Theatre. The part led to other roles such as: Actor's Studio, NBC Presents, The Ford Theatre Hour, Robert Montgomery Presents, 2 episodes of Starlight Theatre, Curtain Call, 5 episodes of Suspense, 2 episodes of The Philco Television Playhouse, Danger, 11 episodes of Studio One, The Elgin Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theatre, Zane Grey Theater, Climax!, Run For Your Life, Medical Story, Insight, Switch, The Love Boat, among many others. He even reprised his role as Blake Carrington on a Dynasty spin-off, The Colbys.

Television work

Bachelor Father 

In 1957, Forsythe moved into series television, starring in the situation comedy Bachelor Father for CBS as Bentley Gregg, a playboy lawyer who has to become a father to his niece Kelly (which co-starred 14-year-old unfamiliar actress Noreen Corcoran) upon the death of her biological parents. The show was an immediate smash hit and moved to NBC a few years later.

On various episodes Forsythe had the pleasure of working with such up-and-coming startlets as Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara Eden, Donna Douglas, Sally Kellerman, Sue Ane Langdon, and Linda Evans (who immediately formed a crush on the much older actor). During the 1961 season, Bachelor Father moved to ABC but was cancelled that season because of declining ratings.

Corcoran said of Forsythe's on- and off-screen work on Bachelor Father: "John was always supportive of me; and taught me a few little tricks like he taught me a few little tricks without letting the world know that I would be hitting the mark. And it was sort of like going to work, but, it sort of not being work. It was more like fun, Sammy Tom used to say that we were a family and he was the mother, I was the baby, and John was the father." 17 years after the show went off the air, Noreen was all grown up at the time, and was very blessed to watch her second-uncle's movie, ...And Justice for All, after Forsythe had recovered from his bypass surgery in 1979. Finally, Julie's (John’s real-life wife’s) death in 1994, drew the friendship closer between Forsythe & Corcoran real closer, as Noreen was breaking down weeping of such a wonderful lady John truly loved for many years. She hasn’t stayed in touch with her TV uncle, but has heard of his death.

Post-Bachelor Father

In the early 1960s he made further movies including Kitten with a Whip (1964) and In Cold Blood(1967) but made several attempts at developing new television series - including The John Forsythe Show (1965) and To Rome with Love (1969), but neither were successful.

Between 1971 and 1977 he served as narrator on the syndicated nature series, The Wildlife of Survival.

Charlie's Angels 

His big break came in 1976, he began of what would be a 13 year relationship with Aaron Spelling with the role of a mysterious millionaire and private investigator, Charles Townsend, on the crime dramaCharlie’s Angels for ABC. The character of Charlie never appeared on-screen and so Forsythe wasn't required on the set at all. Instead he would record his voice on tape which was presented as a speaker phone conversation in the show, instructing the eponymous Angels of their mission for the episode. Though he wasn't needed much for the set, he did in fact become friends before and after the show. His real co-star on the show was the late Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith who played one of his leading ladies, Kelly Garrett, who stayed with the show until its end, and Kate Jackson who met him at a race track in the 1970s, won the role of Sabrina Duncan, who was the "smart" angel. Together, he was making stars of all three but catapulting Fawcett to iconic status. Forsythe introduces the series' concept during its opening credits:

“

Once upon a time, three little girls went to the police academy, where they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that, and now they work for me. My name is Charlie.

”

Charlie's Angels was almost immediately a huge success much as Bachelor Father had been before, and was exported to over 90 countries. Forsythe quickly became the highest paid actor on television and the show even survived the departure in 1977 of its biggest visible star, Farrah Fawcett - replaced by Cheryl Ladd after a contract dispute. Ladd, a neighbor and good friend of Forsythe's, was immediately offered the role of Kris Monroe, Jill's younger sister, and she would often hear his voice over the loudspeaker for the next four seasons.

During this period, Forsythe invested a lot of money in thoroughbred racing, a personal hobby. Gaining respect with the celebrity thoroughbred circuit, he has served on the Board of Directors at the Hollywood Park Racetrack since 1972 and has been on the committee for more than quarter of a century.

Following heart problems, Forsythe underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 1979. This was so successful that he safely returned to work on Charlie’s Angels and also appeared in the courtroom drama ... And Justice for All later that year.

By 1980, Charlie's Angels was starting to decline in ratings but Forsythe remained under contract to Spelling.

Dynasty 

During 1981 and his last working days on Charlie’s Angels, Forsythe beat George Peppard to play the role of conniving and beloved patriarch Blake Carrington in Dynasty (actually, Peppard got the part and quit over differences with the writers) – ABC's answer to the highly successful CBS series Dallasand another Aaron Spelling production. Between 1985 and 1987 Forsythe also appeared as Blake Carrington in the short-lived spin-off series The Colbys.

The show was another hit for Forsythe and proved his most successful role yet as his name and character became a pop culture icon of the 1980s and made him one of Hollywood’s leading men and sex symbols. Typical episodes might include family feuds, revolutionaries gunned down in the palace chapel, illegitimate children, sex or drugs but would always feature glitz and glamorous clothes.

He was nominated for Emmy awards three times between 1982 and 1984 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series but each time failed to win. He was also nominated six times for Golden Globes, winning twice, and five times for Soap Opera Digest Awards, winning twice.

On screen, he was reunited with Bachelor Father guest star and familiar actress, Linda Evans who had beaten Angie Dickinson to play Blake’s compassionate and caring younger wife Krystle. The chemistry of both Forsythe and Evans clicked and were together promoted as the principal married couple on the show, appearing on numerous talk shows and news magazine shows.

The show also reunited Forsythe with noted British actress, Joan Collins, who had been one of his students during the 1940s, to play the role of cruel ex-wife, Alexis Carrington.

During his time on Dynasty, Forsythe celebrated his 45th marriage anniversary to Julie Warren.

Dynasty lasted until 1989, a total of 9 seasons and Forsythe was the only actor to appear in all 220 episodes.

John Forsythe’s friendship with Linda Evans’s family began in the early 1960s, when she met him on a sitcom he was working. Though she was almost 25 years Forsythe’s junior, she once said she had a crush on the icon. When Evans started out as an unfamiliar actress at the time prior to guest-starring on an episode of Bachelor Father, years later, she desperately needed the job, prior to her divorce, and with the encouragement of Aaron Spelling, Linda Evans said in a 2006 Ultimate Dynasty website about her first meeting with John, ever since she was a teenager was, “Well, he gave me my first speaking part ever when I was 15," Linda explained, "'Bachelor Father.' And I had a crush on him! I (played) his niece's friend, and he wrote on the script, 'You are going to be somebody someday.' And I brought that on the set of 'Dynasty,' about the third year I found it, and I said, 'John, look what you wrote.'" Then in a 2004 interview on Larry King Live about an agent who got her start in TV at 16, if there was any Hollywood Baloney: “He did do it. And he gave me another couple of commercials that I did with him. And my girlfriend, Carole, gave me her agent, and her agent said, ‘Do you think you could act, like walk and talk and say lines?’ And I said, ‘I don't know. I did that in drama school, but I don't know how good I am at it.’ But he sent me out for my first speaking part. And my first speaking part was -- was to read for John Forsythe for ‘Bachelor Father.’ I was the lead, opposite him. It was called ‘Crush on Bentley,’ and I had a crush on him. And I tried to seduce him. I was his niece's friend...” Larry asked Linda if that was in the script or real, “No. Well, I was a little too young then to know about those things. But I didn't see John from that show until the day he walked on the set of ‘Dynasty.’” Evans was then responded to King how she got the role on Dynasty, “OK. ‘Dynasty.’ Well, I was looking very much for a career. My second marriage to Stan Herman had ended, and I wanted very much to be independent, not take alimony from him, be on my own, do the right thing. And of course, my agent, who's always dealing with me leaving and then struggling to come back -- I did a movie with Steve McQueen called ‘Tom Horn,’ which I thought was just a great movie. But it kind of came and left. And nothing really happened much in my career. And Aaron Spelling called me in. And I met with him, and from the moment that I met with him, he kind of said it was mine.” Then she said about Angie Dickinson turning down the role, “She told me later. Nobody ever told me that. Yes. Thank God. Love her for it.” Evans has heard it was a mistake for Angie, “Well, I'm sorry, Angie. I really needed that job.” Linda also answered if Dynasty was going to be a hit, from Day 1, “I loved the characters. I mean, I read the script, and I just thought it was a gift from God. I was so excited, because the people were so intriguing to me and they were so interesting. And you know, the original ‘Dynasty’ pilot we shot with George Peppard. He was Blake Carrington.” Evans said about the Forsythe role, “Yes. And then George and the network decided that he wasn't going to do it. And that's when John Forsythe stepped in, which was just really, was the best thing that ever could have happened to that show.” She also realized that while co-starring on Dynasty, Forsythe was going to make that soap a hit, second-only to Dallas, she said of her amazing friendship with John, “Because firstly, he's an amazing actor. And he got involved not only in his character but in making sure his character -- and I got involved in making sure my character -- set a certain path of not fooling around, cheating, being, you know -- we just, we stuck together on the show and demanded that we were the love lasting forever and we were the one thing on the show that was pure. And even though they kept trying to have me go off, you know, with different people and have him seduced by somebody, we said, ‘Couldn't America have one couple that just sticks together?’ And even though they kept trying to have me go off, you know, with different people and have him seduced by somebody, we said, ‘Couldn't America have one couple that just sticks together?’” But when Linda was casted onDynasty as a permanent replacement for Angie Dickinson, she had a successful on- and off-screen friendship with Forsythe that she said during her first meeting with the television icon in returning to see him was, "I had not seen him ever, until the day he walked on the set of Dynasty, and said 'Little Linda Evans, said, mine, how you've grown!' And thought how does he remember who was from that long ago? And then he said, 'How's your mother, Arlene?' And then, I was really impressed." Evans said of her series' star's character change during the second season of Dynasty, "I think he changed it for the better. It wasn't as obvious a character, a bad guy. But he made it more complex and more interesting." The next thing Linda said of her mentor's career was he had a chance in writing storylines for the show, "He got involved in every level, he was very involved in the writing; in particular to make sure he was cleaned up to a level that was comfortable for him; in terms of quality, which we were also very grateful for, because he certainly came in with more power than any of us." The last thing Evans said about the distinction between her best friend's real-life wife (Julie) and Linda herself is, "John & Julie were good friend of ours, so we like to go out with them, and it was just papparazzi went completely crazy. They just try to shove my date and his went away, and put his together, 'Julie, this is my wife!', Actually, Julie is the real wife, I'm the pretend wife!" Julie’s (John’s real-life’s wife) death in 1994, drew real closer between Forsythe & Evans, as Evans was shocked to hear about a devastating loss of her mentor’s best friend/active wife. In 2006, she was reunited with Forsythe, at the very last minute for a Dynasty reunion special, called: Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar, which was the best nostoligical reunion of any other 1980s prime-time soap opera. She frequently kept in touch or have visited Forsythe until his death, as she was one of the people to have bestowed her condolences to his family.

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. The show wasn’t a ratings winner, and was cancelled after only 1 year.

Post-1990s work and life

Forsythe's wife of 51 years, Julie (nee Warren, October 20, 1919 - August 15, 1994), died at age 74,[8] 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 2002, Forsythe married businesswoman Nicole Carter, 22 years his junior; they remained married until his death. Forsythe is survived by his son, two daughters, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Forsythe reprised his role as Charlie for the film version of Charlie's Angels (2000) and its sequelCharlie'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 inDynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of Dynasty.[9]

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 children's fiction during the annual Christmas program near his home at the rural resort community of Solvang, California, north of Los Angeles.[citation needed]

It was announced on October 13, 2006 that Forsythe was being treated for colorectal cancer. He was discharged from the hospital after one month.[10][11] His surgical treatment was reportedly successful and was considered to be in remission.

Forsythe has not smoked since 1982, when he quit following advice from a physician that he was at strong risk of emphysema.

Hobbies

Throughout his life, John had 11 hobbies: traveling, flying, golfing, collects art, thoroughbred racing, playing tennis, playing baseball, swimming, dining out and gardening. On numerous episodes ofDynasty, his character often spent a lot of time with his family, just as John had done in real-life.

Death

John Forsythe died on April 1, 2010, from pneumonia in Santa Ynez, California, at the age of 92.[12][13][1] His widow Nicole died six weeks later. He was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California.

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 "Big Train" Johnson,[14] 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.[15]

Personal Quotes:

John: “I like to be what I am, a reasonably simple happy kind of fellow.” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John: “I am an amiable fellow with no mind of my own.” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John who said in 1970 about being the more mature man he was trying to be: “I was a loose-jointed young man about many things, I had no sense of responsibility. I wasn't a very serious fellow. Now I have a better sense of proportion about work and hard discipline.” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John when he wanted to be an actor that his father was actually against this: “His idea of an actor was John Barrymore. He could never understand why I wanted to act. 'You're a good boy, a fine boy,' he told me. 'But I don't see anything about you that could make an actor. No flamboyance.'” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John who said in 1984: “I was 22 years old at the time and had done some announcing for the Dodgers--but no real acting. Yet it interested me. I said to my father, 'Acting really is very appealing, you know.' There was a long silence, which seemed endless, though it was probably only ten minutes or less; and then he looked at me and said, 'I'm worried about your sister. And I've worried about your brother, but until now, I never worried about you. I've always thought that whatever happened, you would wind up O.K.'” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John: “I have been a very lucky fella, because I never considered myself a Marlon Brando or a Laurence Olivier. I always said life consists of love and work. I tried to balance it 50-50. And, of course, now I'm so happy I did.” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John: "The only way to quieten me is to invite me to a tennis match." (Source: BrainyQuote.com)

John: "And I was scared to death, so I never put my hand out, never offered anything for the longest while, a year or two, before I volunteered to go for anything." (Source: A&EBiography.com)

John on his long-running marriage to Julie, who was his second wife: "And it turned out to be a marriage that lasted 50 some odd years. Not bad!" (Source: A&EBiography.com)

John on consuming champagne: "Once you drink one glass, you went another." (Source: BrainyQuote.com)

John when he was saved by Aaron Spelling to voice Charlie Townsend: "So, in my pajamas with my raincoat on, and went down to the bottles of 20th Century Fox, ooh, nothing but a microphone and two people standing, one being Aaron, the other being the writer. So from 12:30 P.M. until 12:45 P.M. until about 3:00 P.M., we did it!" (Source: A&EBiography.com)

John who said in 1981 about being himself as an actor: "When I was down in Atlanta, about 3 or 4 weeks ago; a little lady walked up to me and she circled me, 3 to 4 times, and she looked at me and she said, 'Didn't you used to be John Forsythe?' And I freely confessed you used to be. But that meant too that not enough people really began to know me as an actor; they never know me as a voice and thought I'd do something about it." (Source: A&EBiography.com)

John when being casted on Dynasty: "My Carrington is much more human than he had been conceived by the authors and by the producer, at the beginning." (Source: Celebrina.com)

John: "It was so far a more from what I was playing on a television series; and interesting me. It was a very rewarding thing for me to do; and the surprise for me. You know, people surprised me and realized, 'What happened with Bachelor Father'? Oh, you always had to live that down!" (Source: A&EBiography.com)

John when asked if he ever spanked his real-life children: “Well, I never hit my kids. That's a bully thing to do. My own father believed in 'spare the rod and spoil the child.' Consequently, I feared him and we had a cold and distant relationship until he was quite old. My mother was just the other way. But I do remember, when I was 11 years old, my father said something that stayed with me: 'I don't worry about you, John. You will always take care of yourself, you'll be all right.'” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John on the passing of Charlie’s Angels co-star, Farrah Fawcett, who played Jill Monroe: "Though I did not know her well, Farrah left an indelible mark on me and the public during her one-year reign onCharlie's Angels. She put up a gallant fight against her unforgiving disease and I send my deepest sympathy and prayers to her family and friends.” (Source: Broadway World.com)

John who said in 1994: “I remember one Friday night I called to tell Julie I would be home late, I was shooting a scene with Joan Collins that we finished around one in the morning. When I finally got home, I was exhausted, but Julie was waiting up for me. 'It was quite a night,' I told her, and hopped into bed. The next morning, I looked in the mirror and saw there was lipstick on my mouth. And on my shirt. Joan Collins used a lot of lipstick, a tremendous amount of lipstick. At breakfast, I asked Julie: 'Didn't you notice anything funny last night? Funny? In what way?' she asked slyly. 'Just a little lipstick on your collar. You want to know how I got it? Joan Collins.'” (Source: JohnForsythe.com)

John who said in 1987: "Like a lot of writers, some actors have hidden away in desks and things ideas and pieces of ideas and this is kind of a labor of love for me that I have had tucked away for a longtime. My father died two years after he had to retire - mandatory retirement - in his early 60s, and it was a terrible blow obviously to him and also to the family. He was a vital, top-of-his-form man. He was an executive in Wall Street. But because of some ridiculous regulations, he had to go. As a result, our family began to disintegrate along with him. It was a bad time in our lives." (Source: The Age.com)

John on his popularity while playing the sixty-something Blake Carrington on Dynasty: "It's rather amusing at my advanced age to become a sex symbol." (Source: John Forsythe.com)

John: "I'm a vastly usable, not wildly talented actor." (Source: John Forsythe.com)

John: "Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift and all those were in torn T-shirts, and I had my button-down collars. They called me the Brooks Bros. bohemian." (Source: Associated Press.com)

John who teased in 1977 before he added that he boned up for the roles for playing drinking heavily, wearing dozens or raincoats, chewing pencils and pens: "I've played a lot of reporters and have learned that a kind of intellectualism goes with being a newsman." (Source: The St. Petersburg Times.Com)

John who said in 1981: "I figure there are a few actors like Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, and Laurence Olivier who have been touched by the hand of God. I'm in the next bunch." (Source: The New York Times.com)

John on Dynasty's Moldavia storyline: Moldavia--we're still living that down. That was one of our less ineffective story lines. (Source: UltimateDynasty.com)

John who said in 1984: "I've had a good time but if I I had been willing to starve so that I could play Hamlet, I might have been a better actor than I am today." (Source: TVGuide.com)

John: "I'm from the east and tend to be conservative. So I don't believe an actor has to get himself up to look like the son of the Shiek, nor does a young man need to dress like a beat-up beatnik to show his independence." (Source: The Pittsburgh Press.com)

John: "I think it was mandatory then for fathers, particularly with sons: they never embraced, I never saw my father cry until the end of his life, they never threw their arms around you and said they loved you. It was supposed to be tacit: you knew they loved you. My father and I had a better relationship toward the end of his life, not unlike my son in On Fire, who feels close to his dad. As his father goes down, he gets more and more involved with his father." (Source: The Age.com)