Biography
Steve Forrest has gracefully aged from leading man to character actor in a career that has spanned over six decades. He appeared in a number of films before landing the lead role in "So Big," a 1953 drama in which he played the son of Jane Wyman. For his performance as Dirk DeJong, a farm boy with artistic and intellectual potential who nevertheless struggles with lost love and disillusionment, he was awarded the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. Having already appeared in a few military-themed films prior to "So Big," he landed a convincing role as an Airborne Division Captain in "The Longest Day," the '62 ensemble World War II epic. A few years later, after having amassed a respectable number of television credits, he starred in the British television series "The Baron" from '66 to '67, playing John Mannering, an antique dealer and covert British spy. The show did better in the U.K. than in the States, but Forrest was hardly finished with television, playing Lieutenant Dan "Hondo" Harrelson in the '70s action series "S.W.A.T.." He also had a cameo in the 2003 big screen version of the show. Most of his work during the next few decades was for television, but he did co-star in the feature film "North Dallas Forty," which satirized professional football, and the Joan Crawford biopic "Mommie Dearest," in which he portrayed a composite character based on a number of Crawford's husbands.
