Background
Forrest was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Virginia Allie (née McSpadden) and Frederic Fenimore Forrest, a furniture store owner.
Forrest was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Virginia Allie (née McSpadden) and Frederic Fenimore Forrest, a furniture store owner.
Student, Texas Christian University. Bachelor, University Oklahoma. Studied with, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg.
However, he is more known today for portraying Chef in the epic war film Apocalypse Now released the same year. He is known for his roles as Chef in Apocalypse Now, When The Legends Die, lieutenant Lives Again, the neo-Nazi surplus store owner in Falling Down, Right to Kill? and for playing the writer Dashiell Hammett twice in film — in Hammett (1982) and in Citizen Cohn (1992 television movie). He had a role as the notorious Mexican/Indian bandit Blue Duck in the 1989 miniseries, Lonesome Dove.
Notable roles include four films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (as Engineman 3rd Class "Chef" Hicks), The Conversation, One from the Heart and Tucker: The Manitoba and His Dream, along with Hammett, produced by Coppola.
He also appeared in Valley Girl, The Two Jakes, The Stone Boy, The Missouri Breaks, The Deliberate Stranger (television), Promise Him Anything (television) and horror maestro Dario Argento"s first American film, Trauma. On television, he played Captain Richard Jenko on the first season of the Fox Television series 21 Jump Street, in 1987.
Forrest was subsequently replaced by actor Steven Williams, who played Captain Adam Fuller for the remainder of the series. In 1990 he appeared as private investigator Lomax in the British Broadcasting Corporation miniseries Die Kinder.
He played Sergeant McSpadden in the Civil War-themed movie Andersonville and real-life United States. Army General Earle Wheeler in 2002"s Path to War, the final film of director John Frankenheimer.
Married Marilu Henner, 1980 (divorced 1983).