Forrest Road

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Steve Forrest, who was best known for a leading role on the short-lived 1970s television drama "S.W.A.T.," has died at the age of 87 in Thousand Oaks, California, near Los Angeles, his wife Christine said on Thursday.

Veteran actor Steve Forrest, who had more than 100 TV credits including starring on the mid-1970s police actioner S.W.A.T., died May 18 in Thousand Oaks. He was 87. The brother of actor Dana Harris, Forrest made guest appearances on scores of TV shows and recurred on the original Dallas. He also played Lt. Hondo Harrelson on ABC’s 1975-76 police actioner S.W.A.T. — he had a cameo in the 2003 feature adaptation — and starred as John “The Baron” Mannering on the 1966 Cold War spy drama The Baron, the first color series on UK TV. Forrest, from Texas, was a sergeant in the Army and saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. He later moved to LA and graduated from UCLA in 1950 with a theater arts degree. He went on to work as a stagehand at the La Jolla Playhouse, where he was discovered by Hollywood icon Gregory Peck, who cast Forrest in a summer stock production of Goodbye Again and later arranged for his first screen test with MGM. His film credits included Prisoner of War opposite Ronald Regan, Flaming Star with Elvis Presley, Heller In Pink Tights opposite Sophia Loren and with John Wayne in The Longest Day. His early TV work included Playhouse 90 and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The trained vocalist made his Broadway debut in 1958 in The Body Beautiful. A fan of Westerns, Forrest had guest starring appearances TV classics like The ... Read More »