John Forsythe (born
John Lincoln Freund;
January 29,
1918) is an
American stage, television and film
actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning three decades, as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s
sitcom Bachelor Father (1957–1962); as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the 1970s
crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), and as ruthless and beloved patriarch
Blake Carrington on the 1980s
soap opera Dynasty (1981–1989). He hosted
World of Survival during the 1970s. Forsythe currently appears 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, oldest of three children, was born
John Lincoln Freund in
Penns Grove, New Jersey, the son of Blanche Materson (née Blohm) and Samuel Jeremiah Freund, who was a stockbroker.
[www.filmreference.com/film/43/John-Forsythe.html][Borough of Penns Grove, Salem County, New Jersey. Accessed December 11, 2007.] He was raised in
Brooklyn,
New York where his father worked as a Wall Street businessman during the
Great Depression of the 1930s.
At only sixteen years of age, Forsythe graduated from
Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and began attending the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[Staff. "Biography for John Forsythe", Turner Classic Movies. Accessed September 23, 2009. "Attending Brooklyn's Abraham Lincoln High School, he came of age, like countless Brooklyn youngsters, a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and devoted his extracurricular activities to sports."] In 1936 at the age of eighteen, 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
[
] at
Walt Disney World's
Disney's Hollywood Studios]] theme park.
Despite showing initial reluctance, Forsythe began an acting career at the suggestion of his father. He met actress Parker McCormick (December 1918 - July 1980) and the couple married in 1939; they had a son, Dall (born in 1943), but soon divorced.
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
World War II, he appeared in the
U.S. Army Air Forces 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. The film was unsuccessful at the box office, and Forsythe found high profile movie work harder to find.
Television work
Bachelor Father
In 1957, 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 rating 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
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.
After Bachelor Father
In the early 1960s, Forsythe returned to acting in movies including
Kitten with a Whip (1964) and
In Cold Blood (1967). 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 70s 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 a mysterious unseen millionaire and private investigator Charles Townsend in the crime drama
Charlie's Angels (1976-1981). Townsend's voice is heard over a speaker phone, instructing the eponymous Angels of their mission for the episode.
Charlie's Angels was 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.
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 25 years.
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
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 and 1987, Forsythe also appeared as Blake Carrington in the short-lived spin-off series
The Colbys.
Dynasty was a hit for Forsythe and proved his most successful role yet. Forsythe and his character became pop culture icons of the 1980s, making him one of Hollywood's leading men and sex symbols. The series explored real-life and fictionalized topics including family feuds, foreign revolutionary gunplay, illegitimate children, sex, drugs, and featured lavish lifestyles and glamorous clothes.
The series reunited Forsythe with
Bachelor Father guest star
Linda Evans, who had replaced
Angie Dickinson to play Blake's compassionate and caring younger wife Krystle. The chemistry between Forsythe and Evans was apparent and as the principal married couple on the show, the two appeared on numerous talk and news magazine shows. During the run of the series, Forsythe, Evans and Collins promoted the
Dynasty line of fragrances.
came to an end in 1989, after a total of nine seasons, with Forsythe being 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 each time failed to win. He was also nominated six times for
Golden Globes, winning twice. He was nominated five times for the
Soap Opera Digest Awards, also winning twice. During this time, Forsythe celebrated his 45th wedding anniversary.
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 swiftly cancelled after only one year.
Post-1990s work and life
[] as Forsythe (with
Melora Hardin as
Linda Evans) in
Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure]] (2005)
On August 15, 1994, Forsythe's wife of 51 years, the former Julie Warren, died aged 74
[Social Security Death Index] in hospital after he made the difficult 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, twenty-two years his junior. Forsythe has one son, two daughters, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren from his previous marriages.
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 is now retired from acting. Besides spending time with his family, he now enjoys 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.
It was announced that Forsythe was being treated for
colorectal cancer on October 13, 2006.
[news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/entertainment/6046762.stm] He was discharged from the hospital after one month.
[www.etonline.com/celebrities/news/37828/]
Filmography
Television work
